The lvarchar data type

The lvarchar data type is the data type that holds character data of varying lengths.

The lvarchar data type is implemented as a variable length user-defined type that is similar to the varchar data type except that it can support strings of greater than 256 bytes and has the following two uses:
  • To hold a value for an LVARCHAR column in the database.

    When an application reads a value from an LVARCHAR column into a host variable of the lvarchar data type, preserves any trailing blanks and terminates the array with a null character. The behavior is the same if an application reads a value from a VARCHAR column into a host variable of the lvarchar data type.

  • To represent the string or external format of opaque data types.
Important: You cannot retrieve or store smart large objects (CLOB or BLOB data types) from or to an lvarchar host variable.