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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> RE: Varchar2....is this Dilbert or what?????
Christine,
You are correct on a few fronts. You can only have ONE language set for a database. So, you cannot have Japanese and English for instance.
My main concern with having everything 255 bytes (or 4000 bytes or any other amount) is that you would trample on setting up data business rules.
For example, if you want to limit a state abbreviation to two letters (NJ, CA, IL, ...) this would not happen with VARCHAR2(255). The users can enter "New Jersey" and so on.
As for changing column sizes, it is easy:
ALTER TABLE MODIFY
(column_name VARCHAR2(15));
Will change the size of "column_name" to VARCHAR2(15). So, I do not see their concerns justifying setting everything to 255 bytes.
Take care Christine,
-Ari Kaplan
Independent Oracle DBA Consultant
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->> the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may Received on Thu May 11 2000 - 14:42:43 CDT
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<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> On Thu, 11 May 2000, Christine Turner wrote: > ***Repost, send yesterday but never saw it come through or any others for > that matter******** > > Since some of you have asked. The reason they came up with 255 is there > was a pretense that Oracle's maximum length of a varchar2 was 255. I have > corrected them on this. However I would appreciate some > clarification....my understanding is the maximum in Oracle 8 for varchar2 > is 4000 bytes not characters. Or essentially are they the same? Could > someone say one byte is equal to one character? I did however get some > clarification as to "why". Apparently one of them "heard through the > grapevine" that when thinking about using multiple languages (i.e.: English > and Japanese) that the same word may differ in the amount of 'characters'. > Say if we were talking about the word "description". It would take 11 > characters in English, however being the Japanese characters are different > (wider) it would essentially take 22 characters. Hence the reason to make > everything 255 (there's that magic number again) as to "allot" for the > character difference. But then when I started thinking about this, I > thought you could only use one character set when you establish the > database. So the potential of using English and Japanese in the same > database shouldn't be there right????? > > Again, this sounds so absurd! I know I'm blonde but I never thought in a > million years I would actually feel like one!!!! Please help in the > clarification. > > Thanks So Much, > Christine Turner > FTP Database Administrator > IPS Sendero > Phone: (800) 321-6899 ext. 3286 > Fax: (480) 946-8224 > E-mail: christine.turner_at_ips-sendero.com > > > ---------- > Reply To: ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com > Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 3:04 PM > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > > Ok, forgive me if I offend anyone....but the head honchos came and asked > what the ramifications would be if we were to make every, yes EVERY > varchar2 column in new database the length of 255. The reasoning behind > this is...."to keep maintenace down in the future, so we don't have to > change the database every time when need a column resized". I'm fairly new > to being a database administrator (going on a year), but I have been > working in Oracle for about 6 years and quite frankly this sounds totally > obsurd! Anyone have any comments??? Pro's, Con's???? > > Thanks In Advance, > Christine Turner > FTP Database Administrator > IPS Sendero > Phone: (800) 321-6899 ext. 3286 > Fax: (480) 946-8224 > E-mail: christine.turner_at_ips-sendero.com > > > -- > Author: Christine Turner > INET: christine.turner_at_ips-sendero.com > > Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 > San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). > > -- > Author: Christine Turner > INET: christine.turner_at_ips-sendero.com > > Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 > San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
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