CHAR (TSQL Datatype)

Is a fixed-length string datatype, with precision being the character length.

Syntax

CHAR [( precision )]

Remarks

The char datatype is very much the same as varchar, with the following differences:

• char is fixed-length. It is padded with blanks to the specified precision.
• result of string functions and operators are always varchar, never char.

The storage size of a char data is not affected by the value of precision. Only the actual size of the data consumes memory or disk space. The padding blanks don’t consume disk space.

There is no reason to use the char datatype in real life. It is better to use varchar instead.

Examples

DECLARE @a CHAR(10) = 'The';
DECLARE @b CHAR(10) = 'Little';
DECLARE @c CHAR(10) = 'Mermaid';

PRINT @a + @b + @c + '!';

The result is:

The       Little    Mermaid   !