In my opinion, the IB6 delimited identifiers were a waste of effort since
they only allowed up to 32 characters and that they didn't do something more
intelligent to handle spaces.

I appreciate you taking the time to spell this out. The conclusion seems
that trimming off trailing spaces is safe at all times. If it doesn't appear
safe then get a clean connection and call it an engine bug rather than a
client bug.

Jason Wharton
CPS - Mesa AZ
http://www.ibobjects.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ann W. Harrison" <aharrison@...>
To: <IB-Architect@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 9:38 AM
Subject: Re: [IB-Architect] Identifier naming woes


> At 06:00 PM 5/23/2001 -0700, Jason Wharton wrote:
> >I was wondering how the new SQL Dialect 3 identifiers are being handled
> >where significant trailing spaces are being used in the names of the
> >objects.
>
> >Are names with leading or trailing spaces even allowed?
>
> From a little experimentation, it appears that trailing blanks are
> not significant in table names, and are not allowed in column name
> references, though they are allowed in column name definitions.
>
> In this example, the table name was created with trailing blanks and
> referenced successfully without them.
>
> SQL> create table "4 Trailing Blanks "
> CON> (" 3 Leading Blanks" integer);
> SQL> insert into "4 Trailing Blanks" values (1);
> SQL> select * from "4 Trailing Blanks";
>
> 3 Leading Blanks
> ===================
>
> 1
>
> Leading blanks in a column name appear significant.
>
> SQL> select "3 Leading Blanks" from "4 Trailing Blanks";
> Statement failed, SQLCODE = -206
>
> Dynamic SQL Error
> -SQL error code = -206
> -Column unknown
> -3 Leading Blanks
>
> SQL> select " 3 Leading Blanks" from "4 Trailing Blanks";
>
> 3 Leading Blanks
> ===================
>
> 1
>
> Adding a trailing blank to a column defined without one seems not
> to work:
>
> SQL> select " 3 Leading Blanks " from "4 Trailing Blanks ";
> Statement failed, SQLCODE = -206
>
> Dynamic SQL Error
> -SQL error code = -206
> -Column unknown
> - 3 Leading Blanks
>
> This alter sequence struck me as odd, because after I added a column,
> I could not store into it, even after a commit. When I printed with
> a SELECT *, the new column appeared.
>
> SQL> alter table "4 Trailing Blanks" add "2 Trailing Blanks "
> integer;
>
> SQL> insert into "4 Trailing Blanks " values (1, 2);
> Statement failed, SQLCODE = -804
>
> Dynamic SQL Error
> -SQL error code = -804
> -Count of columns does not equal count of values
>
> SQL> select * from "4 Trailing Blanks";
>
> 3 Leading Blanks 2 Trailing Blanks
> =================== =================
>
> 1 <null>
>
>
> Notice also that the formatting does not include the trailing
> blanks.
>
> After a disconnect and reconnect the new column became more
> reliably visible. However, referencing the column with trailing
> blanks exactly as it was defined still fails
>
> SQL> select "2 Trailing Blanks " from "4 Trailing Blanks";
> Statement failed, SQLCODE = -206
>
> Dynamic SQL Error
> -SQL error code = -206
> -Column unknown
> -2 Trailing Blanks
>
> Remove the trailing blanks from the column name reference and it
> works:
>
> SQL> select "2 Trailing Blanks" from "4 Trailing Blanks";
>
> 2 Trailing Blanks
> =================
>
> <null>
>
> I was also surprised to realize that even delimited identifiers
> are restricted to 32 characters. All very odd.
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Ann
> www.ibphoenix.com
> We have answers.
>
>
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