[dba-SQLServer] varchar vs char

John,

Use varchar, period.

If you use char, you will have to search on the entire column or do LIKE
for any of the searching.

There is no real good reason to use char.

Robert

At 09:29 PM 1/22/2007, you wrote:
>Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:35:53 -0500
>From: "JWColby" <jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com>
>Subject: [dba-SQLServer] varchar vs char
>To: <dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com>
>Message-ID: <000c01c73e8e$d3a7b4d0$657aa8c0 at m6805>
>Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>
>Is there a rule of thumb for where it is better to use a fixed width rather
>than a variable width field?  Something like... "if a field may be more than
>5 characters"?
>
>John W. Colby
>Colby Consulting
>www.ColbyConsulting.com