Question

Starting in SQL 2005, VARCHAR(MAX) is no longer limited to 8000 bytes, it instead can go up to 2GB using “overflow” pages.

But what if I want to limit this column to say, 10k bytes? It seems I get an error if I try to put anything in the size parameter above 8000. Which is odd because MAX is the same as asking for a 2GB limit. Seems like its a sort of “all or nothing” when it comes to the Max size.

Any way around this?

Answer 1

You can, but it requires you to implement a CHECK constraint:

CHECK (DATALENGTH([VarChar10000]) <= 10000)

Reference:

• SQL SERVER – 2005 Constraint on VARCHAR(MAX) Field To Limit It Certain Length