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SQL programmingYou can use the HCL OneDB™ implementation of the SQL language to develop applications for HCL OneDB™ database servers.
Guide to SQL: SyntaxThe HCL OneDB™ Guide to SQL: Syntax describes the syntax of the statements, data types, expressions, operators, and built-in functions of the HCL OneDB™ dialect of the SQL language.
SQL statementsThis chapter describes the syntax and semantics of SQL statements that are recognized by HCL OneDB™.
SET DESCRIPTOR statementUse the SET DESCRIPTOR statement to set values in a system-descriptor area (SDA).
Item Descriptor
Setting the LENGTH or ILENGTH Field

Setting the LENGTH or ILENGTH Field

If your DATA or IDATA field contains a character string, you must specify a value for LENGTH. If you specify LENGTH=0, LENGTH is automatically set to the maximum length of the string. The DATA or IDATA field can contain a literal character string of up to 368-bytes, or a character string derived from a character variable of a CHAR or VARCHAR data type. This provides a method to determine dynamically the length of a string in the DATA or IDATAfield.

If a DESCRIBE statement precedes a SET DESCRIPTOR statement, LENGTH is automatically set to the maximum length of the character field that is specified in your table.

This information is identical for ILENGTH. Use ILENGTH when you create a dynamic program that does not comply with the X/Open standard.

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