MAX_LENGTH Field does not match the value displayed?

Hi,

I wonder if anyone can help. I have installed the adventureWorksDW and when I run this query

select * from sys.all_columns where object_id = 85575343 and column_id = 2

The max_length filed value is 50 but if I view the column in explorer view the max_length is 25 I.e. ProductAlternateKey(nvarchar(25) ,null)

I don;'t know if I am looking at the correct table value?

Hi METAJOB,

nvarchar [ ( n | max ) ]

Variable-length Unicode character data. n can be a value from 1 through 4,000. max indicates that the maximum storage size is 2^31-1 bytes. The storage size, in bytes, is two times the number of characters entered + 2 bytes. The data entered can be 0 characters in length. The SQL-2003 synonyms for nvarchar are national char varying and national character varying.

tosc

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AdventureWorks is created using unicode (nchar, nvarchar, ntext).

Each 'single' character requires TWO bytes for storage. Therefore a nvarchar(25) field will require 50 bytes for storage. Max_length reports the actual storage size in bytes.