--- In Firebird-Architect@yahoogroups.com, Jim Starkey <jstarkey@...>
wrote:

>
> Character strings never contain 0x00, so this scheme always as short or
> shorter than the grouping scheme currently in use.

My memory, I think you are able to put a 0x00 byte into a fixed-width
character string.

Also, for international COLLATE keys, I believe a 0x00 byte can be
placed into the collation key for a piece of text - between the tuple
members of (primary,secondary,tertiary,4th_level) key generated for a
piece of text. This is for the same reasons as this proposal - it
ensures the comparison is resolved when two primary/secondary/etc
components of different length are compared.

Regardless of the nits above - I think the proposal is good.

Dave Schnepper