Difference Between Char and Varchar

In SQL, data types can be divided into CHAR and VARCHAR. But are you aware of the difference between CHAR and VARCHAR datatypes in SQL? If not, then don’t worry. You are at the right place. In this article, we will discuss the difference between CHAR and VARCHAR in detail.

The main difference between CHAR and VARCHAR is that the CHAR datatype in SQL stores characters of a fixed length, whereas the VARCHAR datatype IN SQL stores variable length characters. Apart from this, VARCHAR is more efficient in terms of space utilization when the lengths of values vary, but CHAR may be better performance-wise.

Before diving deeper into the topic, let's quickly go through the list of topics listed under the table of contents that we will cover in this article. And if you are interested in seeing these datatypes in SQL in action, the SQL Online Course & Certifications can help you understand these concepts by providing practical examples. 

Table of Content

• Difference Between CHAR and VARCHAR
• What is CHAR Data Type?
• Example of CHAR
• What is VARCHAR Data Type?
• Example of VARCHAR
• Key Differences Between CHAR and VARCHAR

Difference Between CHAR and VARCHAR 

For a better understanding, let’s explore the difference between CHAR and VARCHAR in a tabular format. Here’s the table:

What is CHAR Data Type? 

Definition: CHAR is a data type in SQL that allows storing a character string of fixed length specified.

The storage size of the CHAR is n bytes. So, a CHAR(1000) field (or variable) takes up 1000 bytes on a disk, regardless of the string it holds. This data type is best used when you expect the data values in a column to be the same length.  The syntax for declaring a CHAR column is as follows:

CREATE TABLE table_name (
column_name CHAR(n)
);

Example of CHAR 

Suppose you declare a variable of CHAR (10) data type; it will always take 10 bytes of data regardless of whether you store one character, five characters, seven characters, or ten characters. It will always take 10 bytes, i.e., you can store a maximum of 10 characters in a column. Due to this, sometimes, a lot of database space is wasted.

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What is VARCHAR Data Type? 

Definition: VARCHAR is a data type in SQL that allows you to store character strings of variable length but a maximum of the set length specified.

VARCHAR only uses the space it needs to store the string and will not be padded with spaces, as was the case when using the CHAR data type. One of the main advantages of using VARCHAR over CHAR is that it can save space in the database because it only uses the amount needed to store the actual data and not a fixed amount of space for all rows, regardless of the length of the stored string. The syntax for declaring a VARCHAR column is as follows:

CREATE TABLE table_name ( 
column_name VARCHAR(n) 
); 

Example of VARCHAR 

Suppose you declare a variable of VARCHAR (10) data type; then it will use the number of bytes equal to the number of characters. So, storing two characters will take two bytes; if you are storing five characters, it will take 5 bytes, and so on. Due to this, much database space is saved, which was wasted when using the CHAR data type.

You can also explore: What are Constraints in SQL?

Key Differences Between CHAR and VARCHAR 

Here are the key differences between CHAR and VARCHAR data types:

• CHAR has a fixed size, but VARCHAR has a variable size.
• CHAR data type stores data of fixed length, whereas the VARCHAR data type stores variable format data.
• VARCHAR data type values are not padded with spaces; CHAR values are padded with spaces to the specified length.
• CHAR uses a fixed amount of space for each value, regardless of the length of the stored string. In contrast, VARCHAR only uses the space needed to store the data.
• CHAR is best used when you expect the data values in a column to be the same length. On the other hand, VARCHAR is best used when you expect the data values in a column to be of variable length.

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Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed important key differences between CHAR and VARCHAR datatypes in SQL. If you have any queries related to the topic, please feel free to send your queries to us through a comment. We will be happy to help you.

Happy learning!!

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