Re: Why use variable length fields?

["James W. Kilgore" <eMail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe,

I've never used var length fields so this is of interest to me also.

Did you define the field as 100 char minimum?  Have you taken a look at
the statistical mean average of the length actually in use?

What would the actual usage be if 60% if your values could be contained
in 30 char (as a defined minimum) with a maximum of 100?

Could you create a file with 100,000 entries and show us the physical
usage under different percentages of over/under minimum length?

Could you also show us the file definition source?

TIA


Joe Giusto wrote:
> 
> So I set up a test with 2 fields and then do a DSPFFD and here is what I
> get:
> 
> Number of fields  . . . . . . . . . . . . . :      2
> 
>    Record length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :    103
> 
>  Field Level Information
> 
>               Data        Field  Buffer    Buffer        Field    Column
> 
>    Field      Type       Length  Length  Position        Usage    Heading
> 
>    FLD1       CHAR          100     102         1        Both     FLD1
> 
>      Variable length field -- Allocated length :     30
> 
>      Coded Character Set Identifier  . . . . . :     37
> 
>    FLD2       CHAR            1       1       103        Both     FLD2
> 
>      Coded Character Set Identifier  . . . . . :     37
> 
> 
> Bottom
> 
> It looks to me like it is actually taking up more space than if I just left
> FLD1 at 100 without the varlen.
> What am I missing?
>
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