Hi,
I am writting here to discuss bug http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=17268 (I do not want reopen bug and writte there because I am not sure about my arguments)

IMHO root of problem is in different definition of TFieldDef.Size and TField.Size
Documentation says, that
1. TFieldDef.Size should be "For string and byte fields, *Size* is the number of bytes reserved "
  http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/VCL/en/DB.TFieldDef.Size
2. TField.Size should be "the maximum number of characters in the string" (for ftString and I guess that also for ftWideString)
  http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/VCL/en/DB.TField.Size
  http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/VCL/en/DB.TStringField.Size

And now let's go look into fields.inc:
1. Function TFieldDef.CreateField copies Result.Size:=FSize (so TField.Size:=TFieldDef.Size)
2. function TStringField.GetDataSize returns for ftString ... Size+1
3. function TWideStringField.GetDataSize returns for ftWideString ... (Size + 1) * 2

Points 2,3 are clear Size is expected to be number of characters, DataSize number of bytes.
But point 1 says, that TFieldDef.Size and TField.Size should be the same

And now let's go look into bufdataset.pas:
4. function TCustomBufDataset.GetFieldSize works with TFieldDef and returns number of bytes needed in record buffer
case FieldDef.DataType of
  ftString, ftGuid, ftFixedChar: result := FieldDef.Size + 1;
  ftFixedWideChar, ftWideString:result := (FieldDef.Size + 1)*2;
  ...
So also here we can see, that FieldDef.Size is expected to be number of characters not bytes.

So IMHO logical conclusion will be say, that TFieldDef.Size for string fields has same menaing as Field.Size, so it is number of characters

Correct, if you assume 1 char = 1 byte.

(so documentation is wrong in this case ... also fast test in Delphi shows, that FieldDef.Size=Field.Size=number of characters)

Your story is confusing to me. Where do you see a problem ?
See please http://svn.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/packages/fcl-db/src/sqldb/odbc/odbcconn.pas?r1=16094&r2=16988
And look at ftWideString, ftFixedWideChar cases
What happens if we have NVARCHAR(20) column on MS SQL Server (uses UCS-2 1char=2bytes): 1. in AddFieldDefs method is created TFieldDef object with Size=20*2 (because FieldSize:=ColumnSize*sizeof(Widechar)) 2. later when TField objects are created in TFieldDef.CreateField method, TWideString object is created with Size=40 (because Size is copied from TFieldDef object) ... and this is wrong, because: 2.1 TWideString.Size should IMO return max.number of characters ... Size is used for example in data-aware controls to limit MaxLength 2.2 TWideStringField.GetDataSize will return 82, which is also wrong (because (40+1)*2) 2.3 in record buffer will be allocated also 82 bytes (because of TCustomBufDataset.GetFieldSize)

So IMO correct will be in step 1 FieldSize:=ColumnSize not FieldSize:=ColumnSize*sizeof(WideChar)
(like in my original fix in bug report)

Note also, that Size is used (also in Delphi) to limit the number of characters in data-aware controls (for ftString, ftWideString), so it must be number of characters in both cases.


Do you see an implementation problem or a documentation problem ?
Implementation problem at first
but also Documentation is confusing, because do not clearly says about menaing of TWideStringField.Size (only indirect guess can be done, that it is inherited from TStringField.Size, so it is number of characters) See, that also other users are confusing by it https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?messageID=188792


Note that nowhere in the documentation pages you mention, widestrings are
mentioned (which is convenient, since that's where 1 char <> 1 byte).

Yes, but in Delphi6 help is for TWideStringField.DataSize:
"Inspect DataSize to determine the number of bytes required to store the fields value. Use DataSize to determine the size needed for a buffer when working with the GetData and SetData methods. For wide string fields, DataSize is the value of the Size property plus one (for the trailing NULL character), multiplied by two."

So we can estimate, that Size is number of characters, while DataSize=(Size+1)*2

Laco.

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