Re: Another Question about variable length fields

[Alan Shore <AlanShore@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi John
How did you update the file?

Its been a while since I looked into using VARLEN fields, but according to
my memory, the size of the field is in fact an extra 25 characters (I
think) more than the number of characters in the field
Saying that, it should still be less than the original



Alan Shore
Programmer/Analyst, Distribution
E:AShore@xxxxxxxxxxx
P:(631) 200-5019
C:(631) 880-8640
"If you're going through Hell, keep going" - Winston Churchill


                                                                       
             "John Allen"                                              
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Maybe I am misunderstanding the variable length field concept.
I thought it could reduce my file size??

OK, I have a physical file with a field that has fixed length of 256
I change the file to have variable length field 1028 and the allocated
length of 30.
Most of the records have 0 - 10 bytes of data in the field (I may reduce
allocated size to 10)

I then updated the file so that the new file with the new variable length
field has data truncated to minimum length (stripped off trailing blanks)

I then compare the file size (using DSPOBJD) and the new file with the
variable length field is quite a bit larger then the old file with the
fixed
length field.

I expected to see a smaller object size?
Or am I looking in the wrong place to compare the before and after sizes?

John




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