NVarchar(MAX) for short strings

Question

I am interested is NVarchar(MAX) a good data type is I want to store short unicode strings which are 1-50 characters long, but most of them (more than 90%) are 5-10 characters long?

The column will not be used in comparison and ordering queries. It might be added to index as included column. Expected rows count - more than 10M.

Any recommendations? Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Why would you use nvarchar(MAX) for such short strings? If you know the maximum length is 50 characters, make it nvarchar(50).

Also, I do not believe an nvarchar(MAX) column can be included in an index as it would break the 900 byte limit.

Answer 2

I would suggest that nvarchar(50) is more appropriate if the maximum length is indeed 50.