RE: Character varlength question

No, its simply what it claims to be.... The maximum potential length of data.

Remember that a result set implies that there are many rows being returned. At the time the result set is defined (column list, sizing, etc) the SQL runtime has to assume that you could have fields using up to the max length. To assume any other length could cause truncation of valid data....

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jeff Day
Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 9:59 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Character varlength question


I forgot to ask: does this imply that it is really allocating 8000? 8000 was entered in as the max length for each varchar field.

I've gone to dspffd on the file, and it does say:
Variable length field -- Allocated length : 256.

"Jeff Day" <Jeff.Day@xxxxxxxx> 11/09/07 10:37 AM >>>

Hello List,

I have a question about varchar.

I have a notes file with the following fields. The varchars have an allocated length of 256.
Field File Type Length
VLSTK# NOTES CHARACTER 6
VLAPPL NOTES VARCHAR 8000
VLNOTE NOTES VARCHAR 8000
VLSLBT NOTES VARCHAR 8000
VLACS NOTES VARCHAR 8000

When quering this file within STRSQL, why would those fields display on the screen, use all 8000 positions for each field, instead of ending the field when the longest length data in the field ends. In all but 1 of the fields, the longest length of data is longer than the allocated length for the field.

Thanks,
Jeff



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