Varchar (max)变量的最大大小

在过去的任何时候，如果有人问我 varchar(max)的最大大小，我会说2GB，或者查找更精确的 图表(2 ^ 31-1，或2147483647)。

然而，在最近的一些测试中，我发现 varchar(max)变量显然可以超过这个大小:

create table T (
Val1 varchar(max) not null
)
go
declare @KMsg varchar(max) = REPLICATE('a',1024);
declare @MMsg varchar(max) = REPLICATE(@KMsg,1024);
declare @GMsg varchar(max) = REPLICATE(@MMsg,1024);
declare @GGMMsg varchar(max) = @GMsg + @GMsg + @MMsg;
select LEN(@GGMMsg)
insert into T(Val1) select @GGMMsg
select LEN(Val1) from T

结果:

(no column name)
2148532224
(1 row(s) affected)
Msg 7119, Level 16, State 1, Line 6
Attempting to grow LOB beyond maximum allowed size of 2147483647 bytes.
The statement has been terminated.


(no column name)
(0 row(s) affected)

那么，既然我现在知道了 变量可以超过2GB 的界限——有人知道 varchar(max)变量的实际限制是什么吗？

(上面的测试是在 SQLServer2008(不是 R2)上完成的。我想知道它是否适用于其他版本)

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EDIT: After further investigation, my original assumption that this was an anomaly (bug?) of the declare @var datatype = value syntax is incorrect.

I modified your script for 2005 since that syntax is not supported, then tried the modified version on 2008. In 2005, I get the Attempting to grow LOB beyond maximum allowed size of 2147483647 bytes. error message. In 2008, the modified script is still successful.

declare @KMsg varchar(max); set @KMsg = REPLICATE('a',1024);
declare @MMsg varchar(max); set @MMsg = REPLICATE(@KMsg,1024);
declare @GMsg varchar(max); set @GMsg = REPLICATE(@MMsg,1024);
declare @GGMMsg varchar(max); set @GGMMsg = @GMsg + @GMsg + @MMsg;
select LEN(@GGMMsg)
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最佳答案

As far as I can tell there is no upper limit in 2008.

In SQL Server 2005 the code in your question fails on the assignment to the @GGMMsg variable with

Attempting to grow LOB beyond maximum allowed size of 2,147,483,647 bytes.

the code below fails with

REPLICATE: The length of the result exceeds the length limit (2GB) of the target large type.

However it appears these limitations have quietly been lifted. On 2008

DECLARE @y VARCHAR(MAX) = REPLICATE(CAST('X' AS VARCHAR(MAX)),92681);


SET @y = REPLICATE(@y,92681);


SELECT LEN(@y)

Returns

8589767761

I ran this on my 32 bit desktop machine so this 8GB string is way in excess of addressable memory

Running

select internal_objects_alloc_page_count
from sys.dm_db_task_space_usage
WHERE session_id = @@spid

Returned

internal_objects_alloc_page_co
------------------------------
2144456

so I presume this all just gets stored in LOB pages in tempdb with no validation on length. The page count growth was all associated with the SET @y = REPLICATE(@y,92681); statement. The initial variable assignment to @y and the LEN calculation did not increase this.

The reason for mentioning this is because the page count is hugely more than I was expecting. Assuming an 8KB page then this works out at 16.36 GB which is obviously more or less double what would seem to be necessary. I speculate that this is likely due to the inefficiency of the string concatenation operation needing to copy the entire huge string and append a chunk on to the end rather than being able to add to the end of the existing string. Unfortunately at the moment the .WRITE method isn't supported for varchar(max) variables.

Paul White confirms the above supposition here and also provides the information that the variable is held entirely in memory if <= 512KB and changes to the tempdb-based backup scheme for values larger than that.

Addition

I've also tested the behaviour with concatenating nvarchar(max) + nvarchar(max) and nvarchar(max) + varchar(max). Both of these allow the 2GB limit to be exceeded. Trying to then store the results of this in a table then fails however with the error message Attempting to grow LOB beyond maximum allowed size of 2147483647 bytes. again. The script for that is below (may take a long time to run).

DECLARE @y1 VARCHAR(MAX) = REPLICATE(CAST('X' AS VARCHAR(MAX)),2147483647);
SET @y1 = @y1 + @y1;
SELECT LEN(@y1), DATALENGTH(@y1)  /*4294967294, 4294967292*/




DECLARE @y2 NVARCHAR(MAX) = REPLICATE(CAST('X' AS NVARCHAR(MAX)),1073741823);
SET @y2 = @y2 + @y2;
SELECT LEN(@y2), DATALENGTH(@y2)  /*2147483646, 4294967292*/




DECLARE @y3 NVARCHAR(MAX) = @y2 + @y1
SELECT LEN(@y3), DATALENGTH(@y3)   /*6442450940, 12884901880*/


/*This attempt fails*/
SELECT @y1 y1, @y2 y2, @y3 y3
INTO Test

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