Thanks both. SQL 2008. Will go with a varchar (10) I think to cover possible future codes being longer - same overhead on the space as a varchar (7) so might as well ...

What would you do...? Have a table (SQL Server 2008) that the user wants to record a fixed 8 character string in. At first glance, a CHAR seems the obvious selection since this value (an 8 ...

The new VARCHAR data type with UTF-8 encoding should require less space, and filter and sorting operations should also run significantly faster. The API has been adapted accordingly.