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====== Character data type ======



===== About =====
This page is about the ''character'' [[data_type#ansi|ANSI data type]].


===== List =====

Tabulify supports all standard ANSI SQL character data type:

^ SQL Standard Name ^ Alias ^ Default n ^ Description ^
| ''character varying(n)'' | ''varchar(n)'' | max | variable-length with limit |
| ''national character varying(n)'' | ''nvarchar(n)''  | max | variable-length with limit encoded with the [[kb>data/type/text/unicode|Unicode character set]] |
| ''character(n)'' | ''char(n)'' | 1 | fixed-length, blank-padded |
| ''national character(n)'' | ''nchar(n)'' | 1 | fixed-length, blank-padded encoded with the [[kb>data/type/text/unicode|Unicode character set]] |
| ''long character varying'' | ''long varchar'' | - | ''varchar'' without length qualifier |
| ''long national character varying'' | ''long nvarchar'' | - | ''nvarchar'' without length qualifier |
| ''clob'' | | - | variable unlimited length \\ (generally stored outside the database block in a text file) |

Note:
  * ''(n)'' means they can store strings up to ''n'' characters (not bytes) in length.
    * with multibyte character encodings the number of characters and bytes can be quite different.
  * In most situations ''clob'' or ''character varying'' should be used instead of ''character''. Why? Because ''character'' is the slowest because of its additional storage costs (ie blank padded)


===== Default Precision =====

By default, when creating a data resource, if no [[precision|precision]] ''n'' (ie data type length) is given, we:
  * don't specify it if the precision is optional (for instance, [[:docs:system:sqlserver:sqlserver|SQL Server]])
  * otherwise if the precision is mandatory (for instance, [[:docs:system:mysql:mysql|MySQL]]), we use:
    * if set, the default tabulify connection value (see below)
    * if not set, the maximum allowed by the database for the type


You can set the default tabulify value with the following [[:docs:connection:attribute|connection attribute]]:

^ Attribute ^ Default Value ^
| [[#varchar_default_precision|VARCHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION]] | max database |
| [[#nvarchar_default_precision|NVARCHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION]] | max database |
| [[#char_default_precision|CHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION]] | 1 |
| [[#nchar_default_precision|NCHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION]] | 1 |

==== VARCHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION ====



With this attribute you can set the default `varchar` precision.

Note:
  * The default varchar precision is the maximum value supported by the database with the exception of [[:docs:system:mysql:text#varchar_default_precision_of_2000|MySQL]] that makes it difficult to use this rule.
  * You may want to set it for [[:docs:system:sqlserver:data_type#default_precision_for_varchar_and_nvarchar|SQLServer so that the max specifier is not used]]




==== NVARCHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION ====



This attribute sets the default precision (ie [[docs:data_type:data_type|data type length]]) of ''nvarchar'' when not specified

==== CHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION ====

This attribute sets the default precision (ie [[docs:data_type:data_type|data type length]]) of ''char'' when not specified



==== NCHAR_DEFAULT_PRECISION ====

This attribute sets the default precision (ie [[docs:data_type:data_type|data type length]]) of ''nchar'' when not specified