Column for bar code

Question

Hi,
What kind of data type (of column) is for storing bar code?

Answer 1

Hi @Peter_1985 ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

You could save your barcodes as datatype CHAR(<number of characters>) and not VARCHAR as VARCHAR is characters can vary in length and CHAR data does not.

If you're using actual product barcodes and they're really strings of 13 digits, a char(13) would probably be the most appropriate data type to store this data.

If you must store the graphical representation of the barcode for whatever reason, use a VARBINARY(MAX) field - gives you up to 2 GB of binary storage.

Best regards,
Melissa

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Answer 2

What kind of data type (of column) is for storing bar code?

A bar code is just a two dimension representation of data, so the data type depends on your data; in common I would say nvarchar for Unicode text.