varchar vs char

[Robert Edis]

varchar vs charAre you sure no Oracle RDBMS will load the trailing spaces in
this case?  It seems to me that you explicitly TELLING the code to do this!
I believe SQL Server will add the trailing spaces in a case like this and I
ALWAYS make sure I use RTRIM() when loading data.  The same applies to PH.
Using TRUNC() when loading a VARCHAR column should be second nature as long
as you don't want the trailing spaces.

To save time you can automate changes to your code using the wonderful
Power2000 tool from Cognos. :)

Blue

  -----Original Message-----
  From: powerh-l-bounces+robeconsult=sbcglobal.net at lists.sowder.com
[mailto:powerh-l-bounces+robeconsult=sbcglobal.net at lists.sowder.com]On
Behalf Of fernando.olmos at hpa.com.au
  Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 4:44 PM
  To: powerh-l at lists.sowder.com
  Subject: varchar vs char


  Can someone please explain why this is happening and is it correct?

  Why is it that in PH (and this does not happen in Oracle), a column with a
varchar will retain any trailing spaces when data with spaces after the last
char is read into it?

  ie:
          define a varchar * 10 = "abc   "        ;has 3 spaces after the
'c' letter
          define b char*20 = "|" + a + "|"
          report a b
          go

  This shows ...

    A           B

    abc         |abc   |

  Of course if I change the B define to trunc() the A define it works ...

          define b char*20 = "|" + trunc(a) + "|"

  It won't make any difference if I change the char*20 to varchar*20 either.

  I don't want to have to use trunc(). We have tons of columns we're
migrating over to a new PH environment that are all varchars. I don't want
to have to specify trunc() on ever item that populates those columns. Is
there a setting in PH that tells the dictionary to "naturally" trunc()?

  Thanks again gang.

  Fernando Olmos
  M.I.S.

  HPA
  Direct:  03 9217 5411
  Mobile: 0410 382 857
  Fax:     03 9217 5716

  www.hpa.com.au



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