---
title: "Unicode Character string datatypes"  
description: "Unicode character string data types are used to store Unicode character strings. SQL Server 2005 supports the following Unicode character string data"  
author: "Amit Singh"  
published: 2010-11-09  
updated: 2014-09-18  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/blog/49/unicode-character-string-datatypes  
category: "c#"  
tags: ["c#"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# Unicode Character string datatypes

[Unicode](https://www.mindstick.com/blog/10894/unicode-system) [character](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/23551/an-investigate-distinctive-seafood-restaurant-for-your-image-stamp-character) [string](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1527/string-split-in-c-sharp) data types are used to store Unicode character [strings](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/161912/explain-the-python-strings). [SQL Server](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12999/what-is-table-valued-function-in-sql-server) 2005 [supports](https://www.mindstick.com/blog/12043/how-to-create-a-killer-mobile-app-that-supports-your-brand) the following Unicode character string data types:\
\
NCHAR - Unicode character strings with a fixed length of n [characters](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/42112/who-is-the-originator-of-avengers-characters) defined as NCHAR(n). The maximum length is 4,000 characters. NCHAR has two synonyms of NATIONAL CHAR and NATIONAL CHARACTER.\
\
[VARCHAR](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/161878/what-is-the-difference-between-nvarchar-and-varchar) - Unicode character strings with a [variable](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1807/objective-c-data-types-variables-object-creation) length of n characters defined as VARCHAR(n). The [maximum length](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/40973/what-is-the-maximum-length-of-a-url-in-different-browsers) is 4,000 characters. NVARCHAR has two synonyms of NATIONAL CHAR VARYING and NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING. NVARCHAR also has special form as NVARCHAR(MAX), which can store up to 2^31-1 bytes.\
\
NTEXT - Unicode character strings with a variable length up to 2^31-1 (2,147,483,647) bytes. NTEXT is equivalent to NVARCHAR(MAX). NTEXT has a synonym of NATIONAL TEXT.\
etc.\
\

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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/blog/49/unicode-character-string-datatypes

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