Re: Max length of a VARYING field

[Scott Klement <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Barbara,

> It will probably be like this, allowing you to be explicit about the 2 
> byte prefix if you want.
>     VARYING(2)
>     VARYING(4)
>     VARYING (another way to specify "VARYING(2)")

I think I'd be worried about the 30 being mistaken for the length in 
this case.  (Not by the compiler, of course, but by the programmer 
reading the code.)

In DDS, we have this:

       VARLEN(10)

This means that the system allocates 10 bytes in the record, but may 
allow more than that in the field (stored outside of the record).  Also, 
API manuals declare things like this:  PACKED(9,0), CHAR(20), BINARY(4). 
 Where the number in parenthesis denotes the LENGTH of the field.  Too 
many people will just assume that VARYING(4) would mean that the field 
is 4 long (rather than just the prefix).

Something like VARYING4 doesn't have that problem....  Just food for 
thought.