> > Is this just a matter of coming to a
> > concensus on use of VARCHAR and CHAR ?
>
> I agree. Despite the manipulations that IB may do with these fields
> on the server, I thought the intention was always that CHAR fields
> were supposed to be fixed length, while VARCHAR was varying. So if
> practical I would prefer to see...
>
> VARCHAR default to right trimming.
> CHAR default to no trimming.
>
> Either field should be able to be changed via the FieldsTrimming
> property.

Re-reading my 'A Guide to the SQL Standard', I think that this is
actually correct.

CHARACTER(n) - Fixed length string of exactly n characters ( n > 0 )

So it should never be shorter than n characters - ofcause there is no
mention of what any missing characters should contain, and a '0x00'
seems to be a valid character!

CHARACTER VARYING(n) - Varying length string of up to n characters ( n >
0 )

But there is similarly no mention that '0x20' is a special case and so
should be included if it was entered.

So back to IBO.

I vote with Geoff on the defaults and we tidy up the distinction between
the two, because I think everybody just uses them interchangably as
'AsString' when they are actually quite different.

--
Lester Caine
-----------------------------
L.S.Caine Electronic Services