Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Data Types - NVARCHAR

Versions: Informix Dynamic Server 11.x, 10.x, 9.x and 7.x

Infromix - NVARCHAR
Syntax	NVARCHAR[(n [,r])]
Data	Variable-length character data, single-byte and multibyte character sets
Parameters	n is the maximum number of bytes, r is the minimum number of bytes reserved for column
Range	1 ⇐ n ⇐ 255, 0 ⇐ r ⇐ n
Default	n is 1, r is 0
Padding	Not right-padded with spaces to n
Trailing Spaces	Not removed when the value is stored and retrieved
Storage Size	Actual entry length
Notes	The main difference between NVARCHAR and VARCHAR is the collation order
Standards	ANSI SQL

Example:

CREATE TABLE t_nvarchar (c1 NVARCHAR(30,1));

Informix NVARCHAR - Equivalents in Other Databases

Database	Data Type and Conversion
Oracle	NVARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 4000/charsize
SQL Server	NVARCHAR(n \| max), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 8000, 2G if max is specified
MySQL	NVARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 21845, Unicode - UTF-8
PostgreSQL	VARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 1G
Sybase ASE	NVARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ pagesize/@@ncharsize (page size is 2K, 4K, 8K or 16K); UNIVARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ pagesize/@@unicharsize, Unicode
HP Neoview	NVARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ (32708 - size of other columns)
Ingres	NVARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 16000, Unicode - UTF-8

Related Data Types in Informix

Data Types
Fixed-length Character Data	CHAR(n)	NCHAR(n)
Variable-length Character Data	VARCHAR(n,r)	LVARCHAR(n)
Character Large Objects	TEXT	CLOB

All Data Types

Oracle

SQL Server

IBM DB2

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Sybase ASE

Sybase ASA

Informix DS

Teradata

HP Neoview

Interbase/Firebird

Ingres