Thanks Mike. I am interested and I have the book. I will make it a point to review this (in my copious spare time that is :)

-Isaac

>If you're really interested in this subject, I recommend picking up a copy of Inside SQL Server 2000 by Delaney.
>
>Here's the short of it (from Inside SQL Server 2000).
>
>A "data row" has this basic layout:
>Some reserved data (2 bytes)
>Size of the fixed length data (2 bytes)
>Fixed length data (fixed size - 4)
>Number of columns (2 bytes)
>bitmap indicating NULL columns (#cols/8)
>Number of var columns (2 bytes)
>Offset array (2 * var column cnt)
>variable length data (??)
>
>So to answer you question directly...
>
>>Does a varchar put additional overhead on the dbms making it store an offset value for each row?
>
>Yes, there is additional overhead in maintaining an offset array. Does it affect things? Most people agree that the benefit of being able to get more data on a page out weighs the overhead of maintaining the metadata in the row.
>
>If you're curious, you can use DBCC PAGE() to a page in the database.
>
>-Mike