VARCHAR

SQL Language StructureCommon Language Elements

`VARCHAR`

Data Type Declaration Format

{VARCHAR | {CHAR | CHARACTER} VARYING} (length)
  [CHARACTER SET <set>] [COLLATE <name>]

Table 1. `VARCHAR` Type Parameters
Parameter	Description
length	Length in characters.A valid length is from 1 to the maximum number of characters that can be accommodated within 32,765 bytes.
set	Character set name
name	Collation name

VARCHAR is a variable-length character data type, up to a maximum of 32,765 bytes.The stored structure is equal to the actual size of the data plus 2 bytes to record the length of the data.

All characters that are sent from the client application to the database are considered meaningful, including leading and trailing spaces.

Note	`VARCHAR CHARACTER SET OCTETS` has the alias `VARBINARY` Formally, the `COLLATE` clause is not part of the data type declaration, and its position depends on the syntax of the statement.

`NCHAR`

Data Type Declaration Format

{NCHAR | NATIONAL {CHAR | CHARACTER}} [(length)]

NCHAR is a fixed-length character data type with the ISO8859_1 character set.In all other respects it is the same as CHAR.

Note	If no length is specified, it is taken to be 1.

A similar data type is available for the variable-length string type: NATIONAL {CHAR | CHARACTER} VARYING.