TSQL Prefixing String Literal on Insert - Any Value to This, or Redundant?

Question

I just inherited a project that has code similar to the following (rather simple) example:

DECLARE @Demo TABLE
(
    Quantity INT,
    Symbol NVARCHAR(10)
)

INSERT INTO @Demo (Quantity, Symbol)
SELECT 127, N'IBM'

My interest is with the N before the string literal.

I understand that the prefix N is to specify encoding (in this case, Unicode). But since the select is just for inserting into a field that is clearly already Unicode, wouldn't this value be automatically upcast?

I've run the code without the N and it appears to work, but am I missing something that the previous programmer intended? Or was the N an oversight on his/her part?

I expect behavior similar to when I pass an int to a decimal field (auto-upcast). Can I get rid of those Ns?

Answer 1

Your test is not really valid, try something like a Chinese character instead, I remember if you don't prefix it it will not insert the correct character

example, first one shows a question mark while the bottom one shows a square

select '作'

select N'作'

A better example, even here the output is not the same

declare @v nvarchar(50), @v2 nvarchar(50)

select @v = '作', @v2 = N'作'

select @v,@v2

Since what you look like is a stock table why are you using unicode, are there even symbols that are unicode..I have never seen any and this includes ISIN, CUSIPS and SEDOLS