On 2019-11-13 18:42, blackfalconsoftw...@outlook.com [firebird-support] wrote: > Here is the link to the definition of CHAR and VARCHAR field > definitions from the IB-Experts site... > > > https://www.ibexpert.net/ibe/index.php?n=Doc.CHAR > https://www.ibexpert.net/ibe/index.php?n=Doc.CHAR
> In neither the CHAR or VARCHAR definitions is it noted that unused > space is filled with nulls or blank data as both are stored as > variable length fields internally within a table. That is incorrect. A CHAR will be stored blank-padded (space for normal character sets, 0x00 for octets), while a VARCHAR will be stored 0x00 padded. However, due to a RLE (Run Lenght Encoding) applied, that padded will be stored 'compressed'. > However, the CHAR > data type, as would be expected, can only store as a maximum, the > number of characters that its original definition set forth. The > VARCHAR field can hold up to over 32,000+ bytes of data. That is incorrect. Both a VARCHAR(n) and a CHAR(n) will allow storing a maximum of n characters, the only difference is that the value (as seen by the consumer) of a CHAR(n) is right-padded with spaces, while a VARCHAR(n) is not padded. Mark
