RE: VARLEN field... what good are they?

["Stone, Brad V (TC)" <bvstone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I guess my poing was that the IBM documentation states that you can save
disk space by specifying a field as VARLEN in the DDS.  I found the opposite
to be true.

Bradley V. Stone
Taylor Corporation - OASIS Programmer/Analyst   
bvstone@taylorcorp.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Carr [SMTP:74711.77@compuserve.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 14, 1999 8:20 PM
> To:   Midrange-L
> Subject:      VARLEN field... what good are they?
> 
> 
> 
> RE:   VARLEN field... what good are they?
> <SNIP>
> >So, my question is, what good does the VARLEN keyword do in a case where
> I
> >have a field that could be anywhere from 1byte to 31k?  Is this just not
> the
> >best place for it?
> >
> >Bradley V. Stone
> 
> One is compatibility with SQL standards I think.
> 
> On a tangental note,   the RPG D-Spec keyword of VARYING is very handy.
> You make an Alpha standalone field and Define it as VARYING,  It's length 
> is the length (%LEN) of its contents.  (%SIZE = defined size plus 2
> bytes) 
> 
> Using them with String functions you don't have to use the %TRIM functions
> all the time.  Very Nice.
> 
> John Carr
> EdgeTech
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