SQL Server 7.0 includes full Unicode support, which simplifies international localization. N is the Transact SQL (T-SQL) shorthand that tells SQL Server you’re referencing a Unicode string. In this example, sp_addlinkedserver is used to create a linked server named MyServer. This command has Unicode support while translating the ‘SQL Server’ string:

           USE master          GO          EXEC sp_addlinkedserver               'MyServer',                N'SQL Server'          GO

where ‘MyServer’ is the name of the linked server to create and ‘SQL Server’ is the product name of the OLE DB data source to add as a linked server. The N prefix tells SQL Server to use the Unicode character set to translate the ‘SQL Server’ string. The N prefix isn’t necessary if you use the same code page on all your clients and servers and don’t deal with language localization problems. However, Unicode works well if you’re not sure whether you’re using the same code page on all your clients and server.