title: overhead of varchar(max) columns with small data
body: <p>As part of a bulk load of data from an external source the stageing table is defined with varchar(max) columns.  The idea being that each column will be able to hold whatever it finds in the source CSV file, and that we'll validate the data (for type, size, percision etc) later.</p>
  
  <p>But I'm concerned that the varchar(max) column has a lot of overhead for columns that have less than 200 characters.  The fellow that designed this assures me this is best practice for ETL but I thought I would validate that assertion with the community.</p>