space that nulls take

[chagood]

We have compare two table with populated with the same data and with the same definition except, one table allows nulls
and the other table does not. All the fields are defined as integer. The table that allows nulls takes much more data space.
Why is that? I could not find an explaination in BOL.

[Gregory]

maybe u need to run 'dbcc update usage'?

if field is 'integer' data type - it takes 4 bytes.
if data is the same, then....? try to use 'select datalength() from..' to see length of null/not null columns.


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chagood at 3/10/99 3:23:59 PM


We have compare two table with populated with the same data and with the same definition except, one table allows nulls
and the other table does not. All the fields are defined as integer. The table that allows nulls takes much more data space.
Why is that? I could not find an explaination in BOL.