difference between varchar and nvarchar

[Nagham]

Hi therenI need to know what is the difference between varchar and nvarchar in SQL 2005 and wich type is preferable...Thx

[aniskhan]

VarChar
-------
variable length string of ASCII characters.
ASCII characters each take one Byte of space.

NVarChar
--------
is a variable length string of UNICODE characters.
UNICODE characters each take Two Bytes of space.(thus larger field size)

u need nvarchar if you are going to store multilingual characters.

[exterminator]

Its recommended to use NVarChar since in future ASCII may not be supported.Who said so?

[aniskhan]

thanks exterminator
Just smbdy made me believe this on this statement, but after some searching i found.

Use char/varchar columns instead of nchar/nvarchar if you do not need to store unicode data. The char/varchar value uses only one byte to store one character, the nchar/nvarchar value uses two bytes to store one character, so the char/varchar columns use two times less space to store data in comparison with nchar/nvarchar columns.

[exterminator]

thanks exterminator
Just smbdy made me believe this on this statement, but after some searching i found.Cool.. exactly my thought.. :) ;)