What is the difference between NVARCHAR and VARCHAR?

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Ravi Vishwakarma · Answer

Note Use VARCHAR if you only store English (or a single code page).Use NVARCHAR if you need multi-language support or special characters. Difference Between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR Feature VARCHAR NVARCHAR Data Type Non-Unicode Unicode Storage 1 byte per character 2 bytes per character (for most characters) Character Support Only ASCII / code page specific characters Supports multilingual characters (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, emojis, etc.) Max Length Up to 8000 characters (VARCHAR(8000)), or 2 GB with VARCHAR(MAX) Up to 4000 characters (NVARCHAR(4000)), or 2 GB with NVARCHAR(MAX) Use Case When data is English-only and storage size matters When data may include multiple languages or special symbols Prefix in Literals 'text' (normal string) N'text' (must prefix with N to store Unicode)

Feature	`VARCHAR`	`NVARCHAR`
Data Type	Non-Unicode	Unicode
Storage	1 byte per character	2 bytes per character (for most characters)
Character Support	Only ASCII / code page specific characters	Supports multilingual characters (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, emojis, etc.)
Max Length	Up to 8000 characters (`VARCHAR(8000)`), or 2 GB with `VARCHAR(MAX)`	Up to 4000 characters (`NVARCHAR(4000)`), or 2 GB with `NVARCHAR(MAX)`
Use Case	When data is English-only and storage size matters	When data may include multiple languages or special symbols
Prefix in Literals	`'text'` (normal string)	`N'text'` (must prefix with `N` to store Unicode)

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What is the difference between NVARCHAR and VARCHAR?

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Difference Between `VARCHAR` and `NVARCHAR`

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