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Varchar

 
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venkat
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:52 am    Post subject: Varchar Reply with quote
1)what is the difference between char & Varchar.
2)How is the data stored in Varchar.explain with examples how is the data stored in char & varchar.
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kolusu
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Joined: 26 Nov 2002
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 21, 2004 6:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
venkat,

If your questions are for interview purposes please state it. It gives an idea on how to answer such basic questions.

The real difference between CHAR and VARCHAR is the VARCHAR is variable, hence the VAR. Let us say you created a table like this
Code:

CREATE TABLE contacts (
    contact_id     INT  NOT NULL ,
    first_name   CHAR   (30)   NULL ,
    last_name   CHAR   (50)   NULL ,
    email   VARCHAR   (75)   NULL

  );


This means that when someone new is entered in the database the "first_name" and "last_name" columns will have a fixed size, 30 and 50 respectively, no matter how little information you put in them. So, if you entered the name "John" in the "first_name" column, it would take up a 30 character block of storage instead of only the 4 characters it really needs. With VARCHAR it would only take up as much space is needed for storage. VARCHAR does come with a minimum storage requirement.

Hope this helps...

Cheers

Kolusu
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