Re: char vs varchar ?

In article <3n5vrf$bqo_at_cardinal.fs.com>, skannan_at_PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_GATEWAY_FILE ( S. Kannan) says:
>
> Varchar and Varchar2 are currently synonymous. However Oracle Corporation
> may change the way Varchar works, in a future version.
>
> The difference between char and varchar in Oracle 7 and above is that
> char is fixed length and can store upto 255 characters. Varchar (or
> Varchar2 currently) is variable length and can store upto 2000 bytes

With Oracle 7, is their a performance decrease when using both fixed and varchar fields?

We are designing a database using a CASE tool. We want to use both fixed and varchar fields because the database will be generated for both Oracle (on the workstation) and DB2 (on the mainframe). DB2 runs faster with fixed fields than varchar fields.

Now another group will access our database with other tools, including Oracle Forms. They want us to define all fields as varchar instead of our current design, which mixes fixed and varchar fields. Received on Fri Apr 28 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST