Re: HELP: Informix 5, Varchar / Char types / Powerbuilder 4

Clyde H. Bryant wrote: > > Hans Nieuwenburg wrote: > > > > The Informix 5 varchar type can onle be 255 characters long while the char > > type can be mutch longer. In a database we first had a vanchar field and > > converted that to char to enlarge the field to 4096, somehow the database > > comes back with an error when we try to insert a record with text longer > > then 255 characters the message we get is: -280 > > > > This is the meaning of -280 from the informix help file: > > "-280 > > > > A quoted string exceeds 256 bytes. > > > > Somewhere in this statement there is a character literal that exceeds the > > maximum allowed. Inspect the statement, checking the punctuation and > > length of all quoted strings. Possibly two quotes are missing, making a > > long string out of two short ones. If you intended to use a string of > > this length, you will have to revise the statement. There is no means for > > writing such a long character string in an SQL statement. > > " > > > > How can we solve this, according to the table configuration this field is > > 4096 bytes long! > > Sound like the engine still thinks the column type is varchar > and not char. Check syscolumns for the data type ("coltype, > collength"). I guess you could unload the table then drop the > table and re-create it with the column as char(4096) which is > a big column. Why not define it as a text column? No. The problem is axactly what the message says: A quoted string exceeds 256 bytes. This is a message from your tool. Define a variable LIKE the column or as CHAR(4096). Then assign your text to this variable in segments of upto 256 chars at a time, such as: LET var = "first string.....", "second string.....", "etc....." Then use the variable in your INSERT statement. Hope that helps, -- Mark. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Mark D. Stock - The West Solutions Group http://www.west.co.za | | The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org | |mailto:marks@west.co.za +------------------------------------------------+ |Tel: +27 11 803 2151 |If it doesn't work... force it! | |Fax: +27 11 803 2189 |If it breaks... it needed replacing anyway! | |Cell: +27 83 250 2325 |Well, that's how I code anyway! | +------------------------+------------------------------------------------+