A VARCHAR or variable character field is a set of character data of indeterminate length. The term varchar refers to a data type of a field (or column) in a database which can hold letters and numbers.^[1] Varchar fields can be of any size up to a limit, which varies by databases: an Oracle 11g database has a limit of 4000 bytes,^[2] a MySQL 5.7 database has a limit of 65,535 bytes (for the entire row)^[3] and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 has a limit of 8000 bytes (unless varchar(max) is used, which has a maximum storage capacity of 2 gigabytes).^[4]

nvarchar is a variation of varchar,^[5] and which is more suitable depends on the use case.^{[clarification needed]}

1. ^ "The VARCHAR data type". www.ibm.com. 2018-10-25. Retrieved 2025-11-25.
2. ^ "Database Concepts". docs.oracle.com.
3. ^ "MySQL :: MySQL 5.7 Reference Manual :: 11.4.1 The CHAR and VARCHAR Types". dev.mysql.com.
4. ^ edmacauley (6 June 2024). "char and varchar (Transact-SQL)". msdn.microsoft.com.
5. ^ SQL Server differences of char, nchar, varchar and nvarchar data types

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