Re: The fable of DEMETRIUS, CONSTRAINTICUS, and AUTOMATICUS

From: Laconic2 <laconic2_at_comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:57:53 -0400
Message-ID: <GpCdnae_Zfw3ZercRVn-gA@comcast.com>

"Gene Wirchenko" <genew_at_mail.ocis.net> wrote in message news:urlfn05vemtaq7d7viqhevt8vl9ptsuf03_at_4ax.com...
> "Laconic2" <laconic2_at_comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >Don't get me started on VARCHAR! I've got a whole rant on that subject!
>
> If you already have a rant, you have already started, so...
>
> So what is wrong with varchar?

Sometimes, nothing.

I just don't like the way it was implemented in either Oracle or Rdb.

And I also don't like most DBD's reasons for choosing it over CHAR. If the reasons are logical, fine. If they are physical, it's the wrong tool.

>
> My surname has nine characters. Some have more; some have fewer.
> To accurately represent them requires awareness of the length.

It depends. If I set BLANK = ' '
And I concatenate SURNAME || BLANK, is this a new surname?

This may sound trivial to you, but I've spent more time than I would like on bugs related to this question. Received on Thu Oct 21 2004 - 12:57:53 CDT