Sams Teach Yourself Transact-SQL in 21 Days, Second Edition
by Lowell Mauer, David Solomon, Bennett McEwan
Understanding Large Data Types
Before we discuss large data types, let's take a brief look at the history of why they are useful. Prior to SQL Server Version 7.0, the largest character, text, or binary field allowable was 255 bytes. Of course, as applications became more sophisticated, this became a restriction. Since Version 7.0, the maximum size of these data types has expanded to 8,000 bytes. This was a large jump, but it is still a bit lacking for some application requirements. Many applications have the need to store more than 8,000 bytes of data. Some of the more common reasons are
Long comments
Detailed descriptions
Resumes
Digitized photographs or pictures
Audio
Video
These are only the most common uses for large data types (greater than 8,000 ...
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