Re: Help, my developers are killing me with varchar2(4000)

From: Serge Rielau <srielau_at_ca.ibm.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:53:12 -0400
Message-ID: <6gauibFecvrrU1@mid.individual.net>

sybrandb_at_hccnet.nl wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:21:42 +0000 (UTC), Wolfram Roesler <wr_at_spam.la>
> wrote:
>

>> Neither has the question been asked why Oracle doesn't support
>> a random length string datatype.

>
> That question doesn't need to be asked.
> First of all Oracle already has CLOBs for this purpose, since 8.0, so
> in the previous milennium.
> Secondly, a random length string datatype would cause heavy row
> chaining, so kill performance.
>

Aren't there some severe limitations on what you can do with a CLOB?

There seems to be a general movement in the industry to support random length strings while keeping row-chaining in check. That is to inline LOBs in the row as far as is possible without chaining while providing a full complement of (fast) string manipulation function on them.

Cheers
Serge

-- 
Serge Rielau
DB2 Solutions Development
IBM Toronto Lab

Received on Mon Aug 11 2008 - 08:53:12 CDT