Word.ws English Dictionary

varchar

UK/ˈvɑːt͡ʃɑː/US/ˈvɑɹt͡ʃɑɹ/

varchar noun: a text field of indeterminate length in a database, as opposed to the traditional fixed-length field.

Noun

varchar (plural varchars)

  1. A text field of indeterminate length in a database, as opposed to the traditional fixed-length field.
    • Be aware that varchars will in general provide slower updates but faster selects. By definition, the amount of storage they use is variable.1999, David K. Rensin, Andrew M. Fedorchek, William C. Amo, Microsoft SQL Server 7 secrets
    • With a varchar, the storage is always the actual number of characters you have stored plus 2 bytes. So a varchar(20) with a 5-character word will take up 7 bytes, with the extra 2 bytes holding a size reference for SQL Server.2008, Eric Johnson, Joshua Jones, A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling for SQL Server

Forms of varchar

pluralvarchars

Origin of varchar

From the data type name, a shortening of variable character.

Questions about varchar

What does varchar mean?
Varchar means a text field of indeterminate length in a database, as opposed to the traditional fixed-length field.
What part of speech is varchar?
Varchar is a noun.
How do you pronounce varchar?
Varchar is pronounced /ˈvɑːt͡ʃɑː/ (UK).
What is the plural of varchar?
The plural of varchar is varchars.

Words near varchar in the dictionary

  1. Varaždin
  2. Varaždinska
  3. Varaždinske Toplice
  4. Varble
  5. Varbles
  6. varchar
  7. varchars
  8. Varchie
  9. Varchonitae
  10. Varda
  11. Vardaman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: varchar (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “varchar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/varchar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.