LVARCHAR(m) (IDS)

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LVARCHAR(m) (IDS)

You can use the LVARCHAR data type to create a column for storing variable-length character strings whose upper limit (m) can be up to 32,739 bytes. (You can use the VARCHAR data type for strings no longer than 255 bytes.)

By default, the database server interprets quoted strings as LVARCHAR types. It also uses LVARCHAR for input and output casts for opaque data types.

The LVARCHAR data type stores opaque data types in the string (external) format. Each opaque type has an input support function and cast, which convert it from LVARCHAR to a form that database servers can manipulate. Each opaque type also has an output support function and cast, which convert it from its internal representation to LVARCHAR.

Important:

When LVARCHAR is declared (with no size specification) as the data type of a column in a database table, the default maximum size is 2 kilobytes (2048 bytes), but you can specify an explicit maximum length of up to 32,739 bytes. When LVARCHAR is used in I/O operations on an opaque data type, however, the maximum size is limited only by the operating system.

LVARCHAR is implemented as a built-in opaque UDT. Only a subset of the string operations on CHAR and VARCHAR values are valid for LVARCHAR, and like other opaque types, LVARCHAR columns of remote tables are not accessible in distributed queries. For more information about LVARCHAR, see IBM Informix: User-Defined Routines and Data Types Developer's Guide.