LONGs with Oracle ODBC vs MS ODBC - Strange Translations

I have a Visual Basic application that uses ADO to access an Oracle database. I have the latest 9.x ODBC drivers installed, and SQL*Plus tells me I'm looking at Oracle 8i release 8.1.7.4.1 through an Oracle client version 9.2.0.1.0. I'm assuming that these should be compatible...

The application has, until now, been running on the MS ODBC drivers for Oracle, but we'd like to get away from using LONGs, and use the Oracle ODBC drivers instead.

Trouble is, I'm getting some strange things happening. When I retrieve a LONG from the database, any character in the range X'80' to X'9F' is being returned as X'BF'. This, of course, tends to have a distinctly deleterious effect on the readability of stored binary documents.

X'80' to X'9F' appear to be associated with National Language Support, so I thought it might relate to the NLS options in the ODBC setup, which offers "Numeric Settings" of "Use Oracle NLS Settings", "Use Microsoft Regional Settings" or "Use US Settings". I've tried all three, it makes no difference.

Has anyone else suffered from this? Has anyone suggestions for coping with the problem? Or do I just have to learn to live with the MS ODBC driver?

Thanks

Robert Smith

ubik
at
shaw
dot
ca Received on Mon Jun 07 2004 - 20:36:20 CEST