How varchar data is stored?

In SQL Server we use varchar, varbinary to save disk space in our tables. But it’s not saving data always as it sounds. When the data stores it takes a few extra bytes to describe the data length. Because of that, there is no gain using varchar(2). If you use varchar(2) it will take 4 or 3 bytes to store data. varchar(8000) or below should have 2 Byte offset to store the variability of character count. If you are using varchar(max) is different. It should have 4 Bytes offset. But I’m still looking for that to confirm it takes 4 Bytes. And it is stored in Variable Column Offset Array.

More information: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/aschenbrenner/2011/06/29/the-mystery-of-the-null-bitmap-mask/

Tags

• Data Types
• varbinary
• varchar
• Architecture
• SQL Server