what does the capital N mean in front of quotes -- sql server new users

Bob M.
10/10/2005 1:17:06 AM

I have been looking through some sql literature and notice that there is a
capitol 'N' in front of some quotes sometimes and sometimes not. What does
that mean?

For instance:

use northwind
select contactname from customers
where contacttitle = N'owner'

will provide the exact same results as:

use northwind
select contactname from customers
where contacttitle = 'owner'

So what is the 'N' for ????

thanks in advance.

Adam Machanic
10/10/2005 1:38:07 AM

The N stands for National, and denotes the string literal as being in
Unicode format.

--
Adam Machanic
SQL Server MVP
http://www.datamanipulation.net
--

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sql server new users : what does the capital N mean in front of quotes