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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> RE: Determining char/varchar2 column length
Adam,
Gather stats for your table and look in the USER_TAB_COLUMNS view. There is a column named AVG_COL_LEN which will give you the answer.
I'm just curious. Why does the length of a field matter?
I see this question come up and can't for the life of me guess what you are trying to do.
If you are trying to estimate the amount of space a certain amount of data would take, then gathering stats for the table and calculating using the average row length (that is available in the USER_TABLES view) is much more accurate.
Lengths of individual columns reminds me of the old Cobol record length formatting days.
Just wondering what you are trying to get at.
Tom Mercadante
Oracle Certified Professional
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Donahue [mailto:adonahue_at_opsware.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 3:30 PM
To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org
Subject: Determining char/varchar2 column length
Folks,
Is there a single query or builtin PL/SQL routine that allows one to calculate the (character) length of a column that works for both 8i and 9i?
For 8i, character length = data_length
For 9i, character length = char_length (which /may/ equal data_length depending on the value of char_used)
Question, again, is whether there's a single query that can be run against both databases to accurately determine the length of a character-based column.
Thanks,
Adam
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