Changing nVarChar lengths

I have a db with about 6.5 million records. A few
records have a set number of characters, however the
table design specifies more characters than is really
necessary. I'd like to reclaim as much space as
possible. Am I safe to change the field lengths for the
Char fields to the maximum number of characters I know
they will ever contain, without losing any data? Will I
have to change to nVarChar? If so, any data loss?If your sure the new size is larger than the largest piece of data for any
row you should not have a problem in changing it from a database standpoint.
But you may break existing code or apps if you do. That depends on how they
use it etc.
--
Andrew J. Kelly
SQL Server MVP
"Mike" <tatemike44@.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:033201c36e6e$8574ad20$a401280a@.phx.gbl...
> I have a db with about 6.5 million records. A few
> records have a set number of characters, however the
> table design specifies more characters than is really
> necessary. I'd like to reclaim as much space as
> possible. Am I safe to change the field lengths for the
> Char fields to the maximum number of characters I know
> they will ever contain, without losing any data? Will I
> have to change to nVarChar? If so, any data loss?