Microsoft SQL Server 2005 introduces a new data type, the XML data type. The XML data type lets you store XML documents and fragments in a SQL Server database. An XML fragment is an XML instance that is missing a single top-level element. You can create columns and variables of XML type and store XML instanced in them.
In addition to the new XML data type, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 has enhanced three of the existing SQL Server data types, namely the VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX) data types. The VARCHAR(MAX) data type indicates that the maximum storage size for the VARCHAR data type is 2^31-1 bytes. The NVARCHAR data types indicates that the maximum storage size fr the NVARCHAR data type is 2^31-1 bytes. Lastly, the VARBINARY(MAX) data type indicates that the maximum storage size for the VARBINARY data type is 2^31-1 bytes.
