SQL Server Binary and Large-Value Data
SQL Server provides the max specifier, which expands the storage capacity of the varchar, nvarchar, and varbinary data types. varchar(max), nvarchar(max), and varbinary(max) are collectively called large-value data types. You can use the large-value data types to store up to 2^31-1 bytes of data.
SQL Server 2008 introduces the FILESTREAM attribute, which is not a data type, but rather an attribute that can be defined on a column, allowing large-value data to be stored on the file system instead of in the database.
In This Section
Modifying Large-Value (max) Data in ADO.NET
Describes how to work with the large-value data types.
FILESTREAM Data
Describes how to work with large-value data stored in SQL Server 2008 with the FILESTREAM attribute.