Re: Why all the max length constraints?
From: mAsterdam <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org>
Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 10:53:35 +0200
Message-ID: <44796451$0$31644$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl>
>
>
> You asked a very general question, so I'm going to respond in
> very general terms.
>
> Length constraints are a physical reality. Your computer is finite,
> and it can only take so much data before choking. And there are
> times when software is buggy and will write data forever, filling
> up your disk or dbms or whatever. It is best if the entire system
> not die under those circumstances. (There are also times where
> such bad behavior is deliberate, as in denial-of-service attacks.)
> So no matter how it appears, there are real limits somewhere.
> Note that Java strings are conventionally referred to as variable
> length, but they are in fact a maximum of 2^31 characters long.
>
> Realistically, if you have a field for state/province, and someone
> enters 6 megabytes of character data, something has gone wrong
> somewhere. Better to trap it around character 255 than to
> let it just run along sucking up resources.
>
> There is nothing specific to RM here.
Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 10:53:35 +0200
Message-ID: <44796451$0$31644$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl>
Marshall wrote:
> dawn wrote:
>
>>[why all the length constraints?]
>
>
> You asked a very general question, so I'm going to respond in
> very general terms.
>
> Length constraints are a physical reality. Your computer is finite,
> and it can only take so much data before choking. And there are
> times when software is buggy and will write data forever, filling
> up your disk or dbms or whatever. It is best if the entire system
> not die under those circumstances. (There are also times where
> such bad behavior is deliberate, as in denial-of-service attacks.)
> So no matter how it appears, there are real limits somewhere.
> Note that Java strings are conventionally referred to as variable
> length, but they are in fact a maximum of 2^31 characters long.
>
> Realistically, if you have a field for state/province, and someone
> enters 6 megabytes of character data, something has gone wrong
> somewhere. Better to trap it around character 255 than to
> let it just run along sucking up resources.
>
> There is nothing specific to RM here.
Well, then. If you agree with the observation, what is your explanation? Received on Sun May 28 2006 - 10:53:35 CEST