How do you create a table with a column of type NCHAR?
BobHarris
Posted by BobHarris
Last Updated: July 23, 2024
SQL NCHAR
To create a table with a column of type NCHAR in a SQL database (specifically in SQL Server), you can use the following syntax: 
CREATE TABLE YourTableName (
    YourNCharColumn NCHAR(n),  -- 'n' is the length of the NCHAR column
    OtherColumnName DataType,
    ...
);
Here’s a breakdown of the components: - YourTableName: Replace this with the name you want for your table. - YourNCharColumn: Replace this with the column name where you want to use the NCHAR type. - NCHAR(n): This specifies that the column will store fixed-length Unicode character data, with n representing the number of characters (not bytes) it will hold. The maximum length for n is 4,000. - OtherColumnName DataType: You can add more columns as needed, specifying their names and data types.
Example
Here’s an example that creates a table called Employees with an NCHAR column for the employee's ID, along with other columns: 
CREATE TABLE Employees (
    EmployeeID NCHAR(10),    -- Fixed length of 10 characters
    FirstName NVARCHAR(50),  -- Variable-length Unicode characters
    LastName NVARCHAR(50),   -- Variable-length Unicode characters
    HireDate DATE            -- Regular DATE type
);
Notes:
- Use NCHAR when you want the column to always occupy the same amount of space, padding the data with spaces if the stored string is shorter than the specified length. - Consider using NVARCHAR if you want variable-length Unicode strings, which can save space. - If you are inserting Unicode characters (like many East Asian languages), NCHAR and NVARCHAR are particularly useful. - Once the table is created, you can insert rows into it using standard INSERT statements.
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