What is the meaning of varchar(-1) in SQL Server 2008? Is it an alternative for varchar(max)?
+1
A:
The documentation says:
varchar [ ( n | max ) ] Variable-length, non-Unicode character data. n can be a value from 1 through 8,000. max indicates that the maximum storage size is 2^31-1 bytes.
So -1 isn't technically valid. It might work, but I wouldn't use it if I were you.
jeffamaphone
2009-11-11 04:57:42
+3
A:
It's how to represent varchar(max) in .net SQLDBType (not explicitly stated, but length is -1)
I can't try it in SQL language in SQL Server right now for interest's sake: but I'm sure it's only for client code because varchar is normally strongly defined between 1 and 8000, but for max type it's not.
gbn
2009-11-11 09:13:20
yaa...i also thnk the length of varchar(max) is -1 . when i gave sp_help to table having varchar(max) as one of the datatype , the length is displaying as -1.
Sreejith S T
2009-11-12 04:26:41
+1
A:
It is only SQL Query Analyser which displays -1 instead of Max. In design view, still you can see it as Max.
Srini
2010-07-05 09:36:08