Different Behaviour of VARCHAR and NVARCHAR

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Different Behaviour of VARCHAR and NVARCHAR

pvsrpk

SSChasing Mays

Points: 602
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July 15, 2009 at 6:08 am

#134262

Hi,
I need a small clarification. Please see the below code.
DECLARE @var1 NVARCHAR(100)
DECLARE @var2 VARCHAR(100)
SELECT @var1 ='th'
SELECT @var2='th'
print 'nv'+@var1 ----- Outputs: nvth
print 'nv'+replace(@var1,char(222),'a') ----- Outputs: nva
print 'v'+@var2----- Outputs: vth
print 'v'+replace(@var2,char(222),'b')----- Outputs: vth
Here the variables @var1 is declared as NVARCHAR and @var2 is declared as VARCHAR.
The second print statement is printing nva replacing the th with a.
But the fourth print statement is printing vth.
It is not replacing the th with b.
Please can anyone explain why this behaviour is different.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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Scott Coleman One Orange Chip Points: 27452 More actions · Answer 1

Try this:

print 'nv'+replace(@var1,nchar(222),'a') ----- Outputs: nva

print 'v'+replace(@var2,nchar(222),'b')----- Outputs: vb

You are attempting a double-byte character replacement, so it only makes sense with nchar arguments. If either of the arguments is nchar, the other will be converted and the replacement will work. If both arguments are char, it won't work.

pvsrpk SSChasing Mays Points: 602 More actions · Answer 2

nchar(222) or char(222) is Þ.

How this is replacing th. Moreover th is two characters and above one is just only one character.

Jack Corbett SSC Guru Points: 184393 More actions · Answer 3

I'm actually not seeing that behavior. In both cases the 'th' is being replaced. I'm not sure why it is working at all. According to the ASCII table I am looking at 222 is a Right Half Block character.

Jack Corbett
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Scott Coleman One Orange Chip Points: 27452 More actions · Answer 4

CHAR(222) will be interpreted differently depending on the code page. If you are using code page 1252 (US English), it is Þ. It would only be an ASCII right half block in an old MSDOS code page (839 I think).

NCHAR(222), whatever it is, is Unicode and should be the same character everywhere. That's the whole point of Unicode. I don't have much experience with Unicode, I haven't seen anything like the replacement originally posted before, and I have no idea where double-byte character equivalents are documented. After trying the sample code that was posted however, and seeing that a Unicode "th" was indeed recognized as CHAR(222), it didn't take much imagination to conclude that this only works when one or both of the arguments are Unicode.