T-sql COLLATE and Varchar(max)

Question

When u use Varchar(max), it is 8000 chars for a variable, and around 2^32 for a column, what is COLLATE and how it affects that?

Thanks

Answer 1

Collation deterines how SQL Server sorts and compares string data (which varchar variables and column values are).

See here

Answer 2

When you declare a column or a variable of varchar(max) , it can take up to 2 GB of data and 2^31-1 characters. If you declare the column or variable as nvarchar , it can still only take 2 GB of data and (2^31-1) / 2 characters since each character takes up twice as much space. When you declare a varchar column or variable without the use of the COLLATE clause, the collation of the database is used. The ``COLLATE clause does not affect the capacity of the column or variable.