Maximum Length of Text Values¶

When an application executes a query through the ODBC interface of Virtual DataPort, this interface provides metadata about every field of the result set of the query. For fields of type text, it reports among other things, the maximum length of the values of this field.

When a text field has its “Type size” defined in its “Source type properties”, the ODBC interface reports this value. When the type size is not defined, the ODBC interface reports that the maximum size of the values of this field is unknown. In this case, as we configured the DSN with the option “Unknown size” = “Maximum” (“Page 1” dialog of the DSN configuration), the DSN will report that the maximum length of the field is the value specified in the “Max Varchar” property of the DSN.

If the length of a text value, whose field does not have its “Type size” defined, is longer than the “Max Varchar”, the application that executes the query may do one of the following things:

• Leave the value as is.

• Truncate the value to the “Max Varchar” size.

• Set the value to NULL.

This behavior changes from application to application.

See how to set the “Source type properties” of a Virtual DataPort view in the section Viewing the Schema of a Base View of the Administration Guide.