>>I have tested on my own test database that when I change a column type from Text to Varchar(max) the content of the column is not lost. But since I am going to do this change on a bunch of customers' databases, is there any chance that the content would be lost?
>>I am changing the type in the SSMS.
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>I also started to do that. This is required for up to date support and it is not clear for how long this old type will be supported.
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>It has been recommended for a while to use VarChar(Max). I have used it on new fields for a few years now.
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>So far, the fields which have been changed have continued to work as expected.


That's been my understanding, that the change to varchar(max) works well. Like I said, the only potential "gotcha" is if some client application actually/explicitly looked for the older data type.

That MAX keyword has saved my life many times. I've had situations where I've had to build very large SQL queries to pass into linked servers for DB2 and Oracle.