VARCHAR in a subfile

[Leonard_Berkowitz@harvardpilgrim.org]

MPE/iX PowerHouse 8.19C

Several people suggested that the effect of VARCHAR (vs. CHARACTER) would
become manifest in a subfile, rather than a Quiz report. I was curious,
too, so I tried it.

I REPORTed SUMMARY to a subfile and then executed a hex file dump of the
first record. My VARCHAR SIZE 20 items were reduced to 18 bytes fixed
length, each, of data, right-padded with binary zeros (not spaces),
preceded by an integer that, indeed, contained the actual length of the
string. I understand that there are only 18 bytes of actual data as two
bytes-worth had to be made available for the integer with the length.
--
Leonard S. Berkowitz
Perot Health Care Systems
(Harvard Pilgrim Health Care account)
voice: 617-509-1212
fax: 617-509-1955
pager: 781-226-2431