Level Extreme platform
Subscription
Corporate profile
Products & Services
Support
Legal
Français
Varchar(max) vs Varchar(400)
Message
 
 
To
All
General information
Forum:
Microsoft SQL Server
Category:
Other
Title:
Varchar(max) vs Varchar(400)
Environment versions
SQL Server:
SQL Server 6.5 and older
Application:
Web
Miscellaneous
Thread ID:
01581593
Message ID:
01581593
Views:
81
Hi,

I need to add a column to a table that will store a string of email addresses. I am trying to decide between making this field type Varchar(SomeNumber) or Varchar(max). I expect that there will be need to store, at most, 10 email addresses in this field. So I figure that on average each email will take 40 characters and 400 will give me enough length to store 10 emails. Another approach is to make this field Varchar(max) which, I understand, will give me pretty much unlimited length. But I am concerned that Varchar(max) adds some load to the SQL Server database or SQL Server itself and leaning towards just Varchar(number). Is my concern of Varchar(max) valid? Or what would you do?

TIA
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." Isaac Bashevis Singer
"My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all." Oscar Wilde
"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." W.Somerset Maugham
Next
Reply
Map
View

Click here to load this message in the networking platform