Hi Martijn,

>> We are trying to port a database from SQL Server to Firebird. The

database

>> makes considerable use of GUIDs, but Firebird doesn't have a GUID data
>> type, as far as I know. Here is a snippet of the message my colleague

sent

>> describing some of the problems we're running into:
>>
>> The OleDbCommand method GetColValue needs to return the column data in

a

>> format acceptable to the application. If we store GUIDs in CHAR

columns,

>> and CHAR columns are also used for text data, then it will be

difficult

>> for GetColValue to know whether to convert the column value to UTF-16

(as

>> required for text), or to simply copy the data unchanged into the

client

>> application’s buffer (as required for GUIDs).
>>
>> GetColValue does not allow the application to specify the type of the
>> returned value. All we have to go on, is the server datatype. If that

is

>> the same for what should really be two distinct types (text and GUID),
>> then we run into difficulties.
>
>Can't you get the GUID as a string and convert it on the
>client/application side?

As I see it, the problem is making the client know whether it has a GUID
or a CHAR value. Then we can talk about how to convert it.

Am I missing something?

Steve Miller
Language Software Development
SIL International


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