SQL Dialects Reference/Data structure definition/Data types/Character types

Character types

This page includes comparison tables which can be big and complex.

While it's perfectly all right to view them in their complete state, it is recommended to install a comparison tables extension that would allow to select particular columns of interest for comparison.

SQL version	Feature	Standard	DB2	Firebird	Ingres	Linter	MSSQL	MySQL	Oracle	PostgreSQL	SQLite	Virtuoso
?	Variable-length with limit	?	VARCHAR(n)	VARCHAR(n)	VARCHAR(n) NVARCHAR(n)	VARCHAR(n) NVARCHAR(n)	VARCHAR(n) NVARCHAR(n)	VARCHAR(n)	VARCHAR2(n) VARCHAR(n) is slated for deprecation	character varying(n) varchar(n)	VARCHAR(n)	VARCHAR(n)
?	Variable-length with limit, max size	?	?	?	?	?	8000	65535	?	about 1 GB	?	?
?	Fixed-length, blank padded string	?	CHAR(n)	CHAR(n)	CHAR(n) NCHAR(n)	CHAR(n) NCHAR(n)	CHAR(n) NCHAR(n)	CHAR(n)	CHAR(n)	character(n) char(n)	CHAR(n)	CHAR(n)
?	Fixed-length, blank padded string, max size	?	?	?	?	?	8000	255	?	about 1 GB	?	?

Notes: