Purpose

Determines whether the driver sends String output parameters to the database server in Unicode or in the default character encoding of the database.

Valid Values

nvarchar | varchar

Behavior

If set to nvarchar, the driver sends String output parameters to the database as nvarchar(4000). Use this value when all output parameters that are returned in the connection are nchar or nvarchar. If the output parameters are char or varchar, the driver returns the output parameter value, but the returned value is limited to 4000 characters.

If set to varchar, the driver sends String output parameters to the database as varchar(8000). Use this value if all output parameters that are returned in the connection are char or varchar. If an output parameter is nchar or nvarchar, the value may not be returned correctly (for example, if the returned value uses a code page other than the default encoding).

Default

nvarchar

Data Type

String

See also

Performance Considerations