# CHAR or CHARACTER
<a name="Character_types-char-or-character"></a>

Use a CHAR or CHARACTER column to store fixed-length strings. These strings are padded with blanks, so a CHAR(10) column always occupies 10 bytes of storage. 

```
char(10)
```

 A CHAR column without a length specification results in a CHAR(1) column. 

CHAR and VARCHAR data types are defined in terms of bytes, not characters. A CHAR column can only contain single-byte characters, so a CHAR(10) column can contain a string with a maximum length of 10 bytes. 


| Name  | Storage  | Range (width of column)  | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
| CHAR or CHARACTER | Length of string, including trailing blanks (if any)  | 4096 bytes |