changing field length in database
- Thread starter tjsingh
- Start date
TomBascom
Curmudgeon
"Field length" is an ambiguous concept in Progress.
Traditionally Progress data is all variable length (this is true of all data types -- even logical). The format for data that is specified in the data dictionary is just a display format. It has nothing to do with limiting what is actually stored in the db. It is only a suggestion to the compiler about the default display format. You can override it in a program and stuff as much data as you care to into a filed.
This is still true of 4GL only applications. If you want to change the default display format of a field just go into the data dictionary and change it. Code won't notice until you re-compile and if your code is specifying its own formats it will ignore the change.
SQL, of course, hates this.
So there is now a SQL-Width field buried somewhere which you can retroactively enforce with "dbtool".
Traditionally Progress data is all variable length (this is true of all data types -- even logical). The format for data that is specified in the data dictionary is just a display format. It has nothing to do with limiting what is actually stored in the db. It is only a suggestion to the compiler about the default display format. You can override it in a program and stuff as much data as you care to into a filed.
This is still true of 4GL only applications. If you want to change the default display format of a field just go into the data dictionary and change it. Code won't notice until you re-compile and if your code is specifying its own formats it will ignore the change.
SQL, of course, hates this.
So there is now a SQL-Width field buried somewhere which you can retroactively enforce with "dbtool".
