DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHAR AND NCHAR DATA TYPE IN SQL SERVER 2005

Similarities & Differences.

1.Both the character data types are of fixed length.

2.Char(n) is Non-unicode data type.

3.Nchar is unicode data type.

4.Character size for char(n) is 1 byte where as it is 2 bytes for Nchar.

5.Storage size is n bytes for char(n) and storage is 2 times n bytes in case of Nchar.

6.Maximum length of char(n) is 8000 and Maximum length for nchar(n) is 4000.

7.One should use nchar data type for columns that store characters
from more than one character set or when you will be using characters
that require 2 byte characters , which are basically the unicode
characters such are Japaneese , Korean or Chineese characters.

Pawan Kumar
Pawankkmr@hotmail.com