varchar

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the data type name, a shortening of variable character.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈvɑːt͡ʃɑː/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈvɑɹt͡ʃɑɹ/, /ˈvɛ(ə)ɹkɛ(ə)ɹ/

Noun[edit]

varchar (plural varchars)

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
  1. (computing, databases) A text field of indeterminate length in a database, as opposed to the traditional fixed-length field.
    • 1999, David K. Rensin, Andrew M. Fedorchek, William C. Amo, Microsoft SQL Server 7 secrets:
      Be aware that varchars will in general provide slower updates but faster selects. By definition, the amount of storage they use is variable.
    • 2008, Eric Johnson, Joshua Jones, A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server:
      With a varchar, the storage is always the actual number of characters you have stored plus 2 bytes. So a varchar(20) with a 5-character word will take up 7 bytes, with the extra 2 bytes holding a size reference for SQL Server.