Brent Ozar • 8/19/2026

Database Animations: The Difference Between Row Compression and Page Compression

This article by Brent Ozar explains the difference between SQL Server's row compression and page compression. It describes how row compression converts fixed-length datatypes to variable-length, saving space for small values, while page compression adds a dictionary for repeated data, achieving more compression at higher CPU cost. Using the Stack Overflow Users table as an example, it illustrates the impact on storage and discusses edge cases like NVARCHAR. The article is aimed at database professionals looking to optimize storage and performance.

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#performance tuning #SQL Server #Database Compression