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I am using Access 2003 as a front end UI for a SQL Server 2008 database. In looking at my SQL Server database design I am wondering if nvarchar was the right choice to use over varchar. I chose nvarchar because I thought it would be useful in case any characters represented by unicode needed to be entered. However, I didn't think about any possible issues with Access 2003 using the uni-code datatype. Are there any issues with Access 2003 working with unicode datatypes within SQL Server (i.e. nvarchar)? Thank you.

webworm
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  • I've used Access as a front end to SQL server 2005 (not 2008) and pretty much use nvarchar exclusively, with no problems. Of course, I might not be doing the same things as you so ymmv. – mdma Jun 17 '10 at 17:37

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You can go ahead and use nvarchar, if that's the correct datatype for the job. Access supports Unicode data, both with it's own tables and with external (linked) tables and direct queries.

mdma
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    +1 Access 2000 and later use Unicode for text, memo, and hyperlink fields. And when upsizing a Jet table to SQL Server, the Upsizing Wizard creates an nvarchar field for a Jet text field. nvarchar as "correct datatype for the job" seems right to me. – HansUp Jun 17 '10 at 18:10