2.1.29 VarChar

The VarChar data type is a user-defined variable-length single-byte character string that has a supported maximum number of single-byte characters that range from 1 through 8000 and "max". "Max" specifies that the data type is able to support up to 231 – 1 (2,147,483,647) single-byte characters. The values of this data type are represented in simple Unicode string format, as follows.

  
 VarChar = 0*nOCTET

In this format, n = 2 x (2,147,483,647). The single-byte characters are converted to their corresponding Unicode characters, therefore doubling the number of OCTET that is needed to represent the value.