How many characters in varchar(max)

sql-server-2008 size varchar
Russell picture Russell · Nov 19, 2009 · Viewed 140.4k times · Source

How many characters can a SQL Server 2008 database field contain when the data type is VARCHAR(MAX)?

Answer

i_am_jorf picture i_am_jorf · Nov 19, 2009

From http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176089.aspx

varchar [ ( n | max ) ] Variable-length, non-Unicode character data. n can be a value from 1 through 8,000. max indicates that the maximum storage size is 2^31-1 bytes. The storage size is the actual length of data entered + 2 bytes. The data entered can be 0 characters in length. The ISO synonyms for varchar are char varying or character varying.

1 character = 1 byte. And don't forget 2 bytes for the termination. So, 2^31-3 characters.

Related questions

How can I get column names from a table in SQL Server?

I want to query the name of all columns of a table. I found how to do this in: Oracle MySQL PostgreSQL But I also need to know: how can this be done in Microsoft SQL Server (2008 in my case)?

Read More
How to Delete using INNER JOIN with SQL Server?

I want to delete using INNER JOIN in SQL Server 2008. But I get this error: Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 15 Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'INNER'. My code: DELETE FROM WorkRecord2 INNER JOIN Employee ON EmployeeRun=EmployeeNo WHERE Company = '1' …

Read More
How to check if a column exists in a SQL Server table?

I need to add a specific column if it does not exist. I have something like the following, but it always returns false: IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'myTableName' AND COLUMN_NAME = 'myColumnName') How can …

Read More