Introduction to Oracle CHAR Data Type

The Oracle CHAR data type is used to store fixed-length strings. Unlike the VARCHAR2 data type, data of CHAR type is automatically padded to a fixed length with space characters.

Syntax

When defining a CHAR type, you need to specify a fixed length, for example: CHAR(10).

Use Cases

The CHAR data type is used when you need to store strings of fixed length. For example, storing information such as bank account numbers, social security numbers, etc., where the length of the information is fixed and does not change with data variations.

Examples

Here are two examples of using the CHAR data type:

Example 1

Create a table person with a CHAR type column name:

CREATE TABLE person (
  id NUMBER,
  name CHAR(20)
);

Insert a record with the name “Alice”:

INSERT INTO person VALUES (1, 'Alice');

Query the records:

SELECT * FROM person;

The query result is:

ID  NAME
--  --------------------
1   Alice

Example 2

Create a table student with a CHAR type column student_id:

CREATE TABLE student (
  name VARCHAR2(20),
  student_id CHAR(10)
);

Insert a record with the name “Bob” and student ID “1234567890”:

INSERT INTO student VALUES ('Bob', '1234567890');