Specifies whether the length of character string parameters,
columns, domains, and offsets are interpreted as characters or
octets. (An octet is a group of 8 bits.)
1 – Environment
You can use the SET CHARACTER LENGTH statement:
o In interactive SQL
o Embedded in host language programs to be precompiled
o As part of a procedure in an SQL module
o In dynamic SQL as a statement to be dynamically executed
2 – Format
(B)0[m[1;4mSET[m[1m [1;4mCHARACTER[m[1m [1;4mLENGTH[m[1m qqqqq> runtime-options qqqqqq> [m [1m [m (B)0[m[1mruntime-options [m [1m [m [1mqqwqqq> 'string-literal' qqqqqqwqqqqq> [m [1m tqqq> parameter qqqqqqqqqqqqqu [m [1m mqqq> parameter-marker qqqqqqj [m
3 – Arguments
3.1 – parameter
Specifies the value of runtime-options, which must be one of the
following:
o OCTETS
o CHARACTERS
CHARACTERS specifies the length of character string parameters,
columns, domains, and offsets, which are interpreted as
characters.
OCTETS specifies the length of character string parameters,
columns, domains, and offsets, which are interpreted as octets.
The default is octets.
3.2 – parameter-marker
Specifies the value of runtime-options, which must be one of the
following:
o OCTETS
o CHARACTERS
CHARACTERS specifies the length of character string parameters,
columns, domains, and offsets, which are interpreted as
characters.
OCTETS specifies the length of character string parameters,
columns, domains, and offsets, which are interpreted as octets.
The default is octets.
3.3 – 'string-literal'
Specifies the value of runtime-options, which must be one of the
following:
o OCTETS
o CHARACTERS
CHARACTERS specifies the length of character string parameters,
columns, domains, and offsets, which are interpreted as
characters.
OCTETS specifies the length of character string parameters,
columns, domains, and offsets, which are interpreted as octets.
The default is octets.
4 – Examples
Example 1: Setting the character length to octets
SQL> set character length 'octets';
SQL> show connection current;
Connection: RDB$DEFAULT_CONNECTION
Default alias is RDB$DBHANDLE
Default catalog name is RDB$CATALOG
Default schema name is SMITH
Dialect: SQLV40
Default character unit: OCTETS
Keyword Rules: SQLV40
View Rules: SQLV40
Default DATE type: DATE VMS
Quoting Rules: SQLV40
Optimization Level: DEFAULT
Hold Cursors default: WITH HOLD PRESERVE NONE
Quiet commit mode: OFF
Compound transactions mode: EXTERNAL
Default character set is DEC_MCS
National character set is DEC_MCS
Identifier character set is DEC_MCS
Literal character set is DEC_MCS
Display character set is UNSPECIFIED
Alias RDB$DBHANDLE:
Identifier character set is DEC_MCS
Default character set is DEC_MCS
National character set is DEC_MCS
SQL> /*
***> Create two domains: one uses LATIN9, a single-octet character
***> set, and one uses KANJI a fixed multi-octet character set.
***> */
SQL> create domain LATIN9_DOM char(8) character set ISOLATIN9;
SQL> create domain KANJI_DOM char(5) character set KANJI;
%SQL-F-CHRUNIBAD, Number of octets is not an integral number of characters
SQL> /*
***> Because KANJI is a fixed multi-octet character set, using two
***> octets for each character, you must specify the size as a
***> multiple of two.
***> */
SQL> create domain KANJI_DOM char(8) character set KANJI;
SQL> show domains;
User domains in database with filename MIA_CHAR_SET
KANJI_DOM CHAR(8)
KANJI 4 Characters, 8 Octets
LATIN9_DOM CHAR(8)
ISOLATIN9 8 Characters, 8 Octets
SQL>
Example 2: Setting the character length to characters
SQL> set character length 'characters';
SQL> show connection current;
Connection: RDB$DEFAULT_CONNECTION
Default alias is RDB$DBHANDLE
Default catalog name is RDB$CATALOG
Default schema name is SMITH
Dialect: SQLV40
Default character unit: CHARACTERS
Keyword Rules: SQLV40
View Rules: SQLV40
Default DATE type: DATE VMS
Quoting Rules: SQLV40
Optimization Level: DEFAULT
Hold Cursors default: WITH HOLD PRESERVE NONE
Quiet commit mode: OFF
Compound transactions mode: EXTERNAL
Default character set is DEC_MCS
National character set is DEC_MCS
Identifier character set is DEC_MCS
Literal character set is DEC_MCS
Display character set is UNSPECIFIED
Alias RDB$DBHANDLE:
Identifier character set is DEC_MCS
Default character set is DEC_MCS
National character set is DEC_MCS
SQL> /*
***> Create two domains: one uses LATIN9, a single-octet character
***> set, and one uses KANJI a fixed multi-octet character set.
***> */
SQL> create domain LATIN9_DOM char(8) character set ISOLATIN9;
SQL> create domain KANJI_DOM char(5) character set KANJI;
SQL> show domains;
User domains in database with filename MIA_CHAR_SET
KANJI_DOM CHAR(5)
KANJI 5 Characters, 10 Octets
LATIN9_DOM CHAR(8)
ISOLATIN9 8 Characters, 8 Octets
SQL>