Thanks for finding this.... I had searched high and low and somehow missed this reference.
This doesn't quite jive with what Oracle has told me, so I'm following up for more detail from them. RF Robert G. Freeman - Oracle8i OCP Oracle DBA Technical Lead CSX Midtier Database Administration The Cigarette Smoking Man: Anyone who can appease a man's conscience can take his freedom away from him. -----Original Message----- Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 4:47 PM To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Hi listers, continuing on varchar2 memory cost in PL/SQL, note this found in Oracle 8i/9i PL/SQL user guide : (Chapter 3 PL/SQL Datatypes - Character types - Varchar2) "Small VARCHAR2 variables are optimized for performance, and larger ones are optimized for efficient memory use. The cutoff point is 2000 bytes. For a VARCHAR2 that is 2000 bytes or longer, PL/SQL dynamically allocates only enough memory to hold the actual value. For a VARCHAR2 variable that is shorter than 2000 bytes, PL/SQL preallocates the full declared length of the variable. For example, if you assign the same 500-byte value to a VARCHAR2(2000 BYTE) variable and to a VARCHAR2(1999 BYTE) variable, the former takes up 500 bytes and the latter takes up 1999 bytes. " HTH Regards Gilles Parc carpe diem !! -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Gilles PARC INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Freeman, Robert INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
