Difference Between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR in Sql Sqrver

Question

Hey, Can you describe me Difference Between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR in SQL Server with an example in a real world not book theoretically?

Manish Kumar · Answer

If you want to capture record like chinies charachter then use nvarchar and if simple english then use varchar .

Mohan Arumugam · Answer

VARCHAR It is a variable length data type Used to store non-Unicode characters Occupies 1 byte of space for each character NVARCHAR It is a variable-length data type Used to store Unicode characters Occupies 2 bytes of space for each character examples: Check links https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/cda5ba/difference-between-char-nchar-varchar-and-nvarchar-data-ty/ https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40040715/nvarchar-storage-vs-varchar-storage-on-sql-server/40040774 https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/36081/write-differences-between-varchar-and-nvarchar

Sahil Sharma · Answer

Real World Example: Let's say there are two companies A and B with the following characteristics: Company A: 1. All the employees are Indian. 2. They speak Hindi. 3. Official Language is Hindi. Company B: 1. Most of the employees are Indian, however few are from USA. 2. Usually speak Hindi but English is also used. 3. Official Language is Hindi and English. So, varchar is like Company A that stores characters for a single language (English). In order to make it multilingual like Company B, we use nvarchar that can store characters of any writing language (Unicode). Technically, it may be noted that in order to store unicode characters, nvarchar takes 2 bytes per character as compared to varchar which takes only 1.

Ravi Kiran Chanduri · Answer

Hi Vikas, to tell in simple words, If your column values consist of data of foreign language like then, we should use NVARCHAR type column. if the data is in plain English, we can use VARCHAR.

Kapil Singh Kumawat · Answer

VARCHAR is used to store non-unicode NVARCHAR is used to store unicode and non-unicode which means you can store any type of character in different languages like chinese, english, spanish. Please check the below links for examples - https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/36081/write-differences-between-varchar-and-nvarchar https://stackoverflow.com/questions/144283/what-is-the-difference-between-varchar-and-nvarchar

Kalyani Shevale · Answer

refer below link https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35366/what-are-the-main-performance-differences-between-varchar-and-nvarchar-sql-serve

Gajanan Chavhan · Answer

varchar - is the SQL-92 synonym for character varying. Variable length data type. nvarchar- is the SQL-92 synonym for national char varying and national character varying. Variable length data type N stands for National Language Character Set and is used to specify a Unicode string. When using Unicode data types, a column can store any character defined by the Unicode Standard, which includes all of the characters defined in the various character sets.

Prashanth Kumar · Answer

Nvarchar use 2bytes per charecter varchar use 1 byte per charecter varchar will take less space and nvarchar will take lot of space

Difference Between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR in Sql Sqrver

Answers (8)