N' in Strings

[itsmarkdavies]

Apologies if this is something that I should know, but I was wondering if someone could explain to me why some Strings in SQL Server are preceeded with N'.

For Example, in Books Online under "sp_addlinkedserver", the example says :-

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver 'SEATTLESales', N'SQL Server'

and in Job Steps Created by Maintenance Plans, e.g. below :-

EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_sqlmaint N'-PlanID 2D10E1D2'

and in Job Scripts, e.g. below :-

SELECT @JobID = job_id FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs
WHERE (name = N'TEST')



mark.davies@npower.com

 

[SQLDenis]

Unicode constants are specified with a leading N: N'A Unicode string'.

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