title: Are there disadvantages to using VARCHAR(MAX) in a table?
body: <p>Here is my predicament.</p>
  
  <p>Basically, I need a column in a table to hold up an unknown length of characters. But I was curious if in Sql Server performance problems could arise using a VARCHAR(MAX) or NVARCHAR(MAX) in a column, such as: 'This time' I only need to store 3 characters and most of the time I only need to store 10 characters. But there is a small chances that It could be up to a couple thousand characters in that column, or even possibly a million, It is unpredictable. But, I can guarantee that it will not go over the 2GB limit.</p>
  
  <p>I was just curious if there are any performance issues, or possibly better ways of solving this problem where available.</p>