> But the application's work would be a lot easier if N (or
> "bytesactuallyused") were contained in the (X)SQLVAR struct.

And good news are: "bytesactuallyused" is contained. For VARCHAR.

> Yes, if the struct docs says that the buffer will be padded with spaces
> up to N codepoints and \0 beyond that. But that would also require that
> \0 can't occur in the actual data value. I suppose that is and should
> still be allowed, so i that case the change in padding would not help.

\0 is allowed in cahracter set OCTETS only. All other character sets,
including NONE, prohibit it.

> But note that noone has asked for that change in padding. What we've
> been asking for is N or "bytesactuallyused". And that *would* help.

And this is exactly the reason for VARCHAR existence - to have actual
length on the string.

SY, SD.