Hi,

I am new to MS SQL. When I create a column in a table, when shall I
use nvarchar or varchar? Please help.

Thanks,
Mike

The nvarchar data type provides support for Unicode characters. This is
needed if you are building an international system that must store different
languages. However, if you have no need to store Unicode characters then you
are better using varchar. The nvarchar data type occupies twice the space of
varchar as it uses 2 bytes to encode each character.

HTH,

Plamen Ratchev
http://www.SQLStudio.com

On 26 Feb, 15:13, "Plamen Ratchev" <Pla... (AT) SQLStudio (DOT) com> wrote:
varchar will support a lot of characters from different languages
though (depending on the collation codepage) so no need to rush into
doubling your storage if you dont "really" need to

On Feb 26, 10:26 am, "oliver" <oraus... (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:
Plamen, Oliver Thanks a lot!

Mike

On Feb 26, 9:47 am, haid... (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:
Mike,

Clearly you need to go back to reading the manual or get a Dummy's
book if you don't know the difference between unicode and ascii
strings.

HTH,

Carl Tegeder
Master MS-SQL Administrator

Carl Tegeder wrote:

Not the most tactful of responses, but hey.

To the original poster: Google and Wikipedia are your friends.