ASA SQL Reference
  SQL Data Types
    Character data types

CHARACTER VARYING (VARCHAR) data type [Character]

Function 

Same as CHAR.

Syntax 

{ VARCHAR | CHARACTER VARYING } [ ( max-length ) ]

Usage 

The default value of max-length is 1.

For strings up to 254 bytes in length, the storage requirements are the number of bytes in the string plus one additional byte. For longer strings, there is more overhead.

Strings of multi-byte characters can be held as the CHAR data type, but it is important to note that max-length is in bytes, not characters.

Parameters 

max-length    The maximum length of the string, in bytes. The maximum size allowed is 32767.

Standards and compatibility 

• SQL/92    Compatible with SQL/92.

• Sybase    Compatible with Adaptive Server Enterprise. The maximum max-length for Adaptive Server Enterprise is 255.

See also 

CHAR data type [Character]

LONG VARCHAR data type [Character]