RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread DENNIS WILLIAMS
Gene
   Was another part of the rumor that Oracle was going to retire SQL
standard compatibility?

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 

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Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:09 AM
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Hi all:

Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

thanks

Gene

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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Mercadante, Thomas F
Gene,

I remember Oracle saying that char was going away - about 6 years ago.
That's when they created varchar and varchar2.

Is this a new rumor?

Tom Mercadante
Oracle Certified Professional


-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 11:09 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Hi all:

Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

thanks

Gene

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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Jamadagni, Rajendra
Another myth ... maybe. I also heard that in 9i DBA will be no longer needed.

Raj

Rajendra dot Jamadagni at nospamespn dot com
All Views expressed in this email are strictly personal.
QOTD: Any clod can have facts, having an opinion is an art !


-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 11:09 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Hi all:

Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

thanks

Gene


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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Mladen Gogala
Not as long as DB2 has it. Oracle needs to be compatible, in order
for the people to convert. In addition to that, CHAR has some properties 
which VARCHAR2 does not. CHAR is fixed size, blank padded and oracle probably
wouldn't want to break ancient mainframe COBOL programs, because people would
stick to DB2 because of that. I believe that is a malicious rumor spread by
the panicking liberals.

On 12/10/2003 11:09:27 AM, Gene Gurevich wrote:
 Hi all:
 
 Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
 variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
 varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?
 
 thanks
 
 Gene
 
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Mladen Gogala
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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Jonathan Gennick
Wednesday, December 10, 2003, 11:09:27 AM, Gene Gurevich ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
GG Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
GG variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
GG varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

I've not heard anything like this. I'm skeptical that it's
true. The ANSI standard defines a fixed-length type
analogous to CHAR, so phasing out CHAR would seem to take
Oracle in a direction *away* from the standard, and that
seems out-of-character. Lately, Oracle seems to have
emphasized compliance with the SQL standard.

Would it even make sense to dispense with CHAR? I admit,
I've never found it too useful, but I'm sure there are
applications that use it. Any phase-out would surely need to
take place over a very long period of time.

What good reasons might an application have to use and
depend on CHAR variables?

Best regards,

Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are
http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread DENNIS WILLIAMS


-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:35 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Wednesday, December 10, 2003, 11:09:27 AM, Gene Gurevich ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
wrote:
GG Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
GG variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
GG varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

I've not heard anything like this. I'm skeptical that it's
true. The ANSI standard defines a fixed-length type
analogous to CHAR, so phasing out CHAR would seem to take
Oracle in a direction *away* from the standard, and that
seems out-of-character. Lately, Oracle seems to have
emphasized compliance with the SQL standard.

Would it even make sense to dispense with CHAR? I admit,
I've never found it too useful, but I'm sure there are
applications that use it. Any phase-out would surely need to
take place over a very long period of time.

What good reasons might an application have to use and
depend on CHAR variables?

Best regards,

Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are
http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Join the Oracle-article list and receive one
article on Oracle technologies per month by 
email. To join, visit
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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread DENNIS WILLIAMS
Jonathan
   My understanding is that VARCHAR2 is not even a SQL standard, and some
databases don't handle VARCHAR very efficiently, so if you are trying to
sell a product that can adapt to several databases besides Oracle, you might
stick to CHAR.
   If your application is COBOL-based, using CHAR simplifies things quite a
bit. Especially if you sell your application to many sites that want to use
Oracle underneath but don't have an Oracle DBA, at least not initially. Yeah
it wastes a bit of disk space.

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 

-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:35 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Wednesday, December 10, 2003, 11:09:27 AM, Gene Gurevich ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
wrote:
GG Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
GG variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
GG varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

I've not heard anything like this. I'm skeptical that it's
true. The ANSI standard defines a fixed-length type
analogous to CHAR, so phasing out CHAR would seem to take
Oracle in a direction *away* from the standard, and that
seems out-of-character. Lately, Oracle seems to have
emphasized compliance with the SQL standard.

Would it even make sense to dispense with CHAR? I admit,
I've never found it too useful, but I'm sure there are
applications that use it. Any phase-out would surely need to
take place over a very long period of time.

What good reasons might an application have to use and
depend on CHAR variables?

Best regards,

Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are
http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Join the Oracle-article list and receive one
article on Oracle technologies per month by 
email. To join, visit
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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Pete Sharman
You mean you still need a DBA in 9i?!!?   :)

Pete

Controlling developers is like herding cats.

Kevin Loney, Oracle DBA Handbook

Oh no, it's not.  It's much harder than that!

Bruce Pihlamae, long-term Oracle DBA


-Original Message-
Jamadagni, Rajendra
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 3:35 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L

Another myth ... maybe. I also heard that in 9i DBA will be no longer
needed.

Raj


Rajendra dot Jamadagni at nospamespn dot com
All Views expressed in this email are strictly personal.
QOTD: Any clod can have facts, having an opinion is an art !


-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 11:09 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Hi all:

Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

thanks

Gene



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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Mladen Gogala

On 12/10/2003 12:44:26 PM, Jesse, Rich wrote:
 Did I mention that this application also RELIES on the OCI bug that allows a
 date column to contain a zero (as opposed to the zero-date) that can't be
 done thru normal SQL?

That is, probably, because your application supports conversion to stardate.
Beam me up, Rich.

Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA



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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Jamadagni, Rajendra
Dennis,

According to my copy of 'A Guide To SQL Standard (Author: C. J. Date), 4th ed, pp292, 
section 19.4

CHARACTER(n) - fixed length string of exactly n characters (n  0)
VARYING(n)   - varying length string of up to n characters (n  0)

So, I guess it is.
Raj

Rajendra dot Jamadagni at nospamespn dot com
All Views expressed in this email are strictly personal.
QOTD: Any clod can have facts, having an opinion is an art !


-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 11:49 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Jonathan
   My understanding is that VARCHAR2 is not even a SQL standard, and some
databases don't handle VARCHAR very efficiently, so if you are trying to
sell a product that can adapt to several databases besides Oracle, you might
stick to CHAR.
   If your application is COBOL-based, using CHAR simplifies things quite a
bit. Especially if you sell your application to many sites that want to use
Oracle underneath but don't have an Oracle DBA, at least not initially. Yeah
it wastes a bit of disk space.

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 

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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Jesse, Rich
How's about applications written in ancient awful 4GLs like PowerHouse that
do not handle variable length fields (aka columns) in their own files, and
therefore do not directly support them in relational DBs either?

Did I mention that this application also RELIES on the OCI bug that allows a
date column to contain a zero (as opposed to the zero-date) that can't be
done thru normal SQL?

SELECT TO_CHAR(lastused,'') FROM mytables;

TO_CHAR(
-
2003


2003
2002


H...I forgot about that in testing our 9i upgrade...

Rich


Rich Jesse   System/Database Administrator
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA


-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:35 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L


Wednesday, December 10, 2003, 11:09:27 AM, Gene Gurevich ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
wrote:
GG Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
GG variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
GG varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?

I've not heard anything like this. I'm skeptical that it's
true. The ANSI standard defines a fixed-length type
analogous to CHAR, so phasing out CHAR would seem to take
Oracle in a direction *away* from the standard, and that
seems out-of-character. Lately, Oracle seems to have
emphasized compliance with the SQL standard.

Would it even make sense to dispense with CHAR? I admit,
I've never found it too useful, but I'm sure there are
applications that use it. Any phase-out would surely need to
take place over a very long period of time.

What good reasons might an application have to use and
depend on CHAR variables?

Best regards,

Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are
-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Jesse, Rich
  INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Mladen Gogala

On 12/10/2003 11:34:36 AM, Jamadagni, Rajendra wrote:
 Another myth ... maybe. I also heard that in 9i DBA will be no longer needed.
 
 Raj

And it became reality. DBA jobs were outsourced. The only necessary people
belong to the damagement. Oracle 10g will create the need for fewer IS professionals
and more magazine reading damagers.

Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA



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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread KENNETH JANUSZ
Probably by Howard Dean and Bertie Gore.


- Original Message -
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:34 AM


 Not as long as DB2 has it. Oracle needs to be compatible, in order
 for the people to convert. In addition to that, CHAR has some properties
 which VARCHAR2 does not. CHAR is fixed size, blank padded and oracle
probably
 wouldn't want to break ancient mainframe COBOL programs, because people
would
 stick to DB2 because of that. I believe that is a malicious rumor spread
by
 the panicking liberals.

 On 12/10/2003 11:09:27 AM, Gene Gurevich wrote:
  Hi all:
 
  Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
  variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
  varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?
 
  thanks
 
  Gene
 
  __
  Do you Yahoo!?
  Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now
  http://companion.yahoo.com/
  --
  Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Tanel Poder
 What good reasons might an application have to use and
 depend on CHAR variables?

There was a recommendation in Oracle's intro to SQL training materials
several years ago, that you can use fixed-len char columns to make sure that
your rows never grow once inserted, thus reducing row migration possibility.

But in reality, whoever wrote it, didn't realize that number column size
still do vary depending on contents, also a char col takes only one byte
when it is NULL, despite it's length definition in data dictionary. Once you
insert any data into it, the char as much bytes as required by definition
and fills rest with blanks...

Tanel.


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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Tanel Poder
 I remember Oracle saying that char was going away - about 6 years ago.
 That's when they created varchar and varchar2.
 
 Is this a new rumor?

VARCHAR3 type coming?

Tanel.


 
 Tom Mercadante
 Oracle Certified Professional
 
 
 -Original Message-
 Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 11:09 AM
 To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
 
 
 Hi all:
 
 Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
 variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
 varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?
 
 thanks
 
 Gene
 
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RE: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Jesse, Rich
ROTFL!  Completely blocked the fact out of my mind that this app started out
using InterBase (aka StarBase).  It didn't change to Oracle until we lost
a day's worth of ERP because a Windohs PC crashed that was running a telnet
session to the server and didn't disconnect from the app/DB properly.
N, that would *never* happen!

Ah, those good ol' days weren't that good...

Rich


Rich Jesse   System/Database Administrator
[EMAIL PROTECTED]  Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA

-Original Message-
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 12:09 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L



On 12/10/2003 12:44:26 PM, Jesse, Rich wrote:
 Did I mention that this application also RELIES on the OCI bug that allows
a
 date column to contain a zero (as opposed to the zero-date) that can't be
 done thru normal SQL?

That is, probably, because your application supports conversion to stardate.
Beam me up, Rich.

Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA
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Re: char is going away?

2003-12-10 Thread Tim Gorman
VARCHAR2 started with Oracle7 v7.0.x (circa 1992-ish).  Prior to that,
Oracle6 had just VARCHAR with the exact same semantics/definition/behavior
as current VARCHAR2.

At the time, the explanation was that the ANSI SQL definition of VARCHAR
was slightly different from Oracle's existing implementation, so they
renamed theirs to VARCHAR2 in case in future they ever decided to offer the
ANSI definition as well...


on 12/10/03 2:39 PM, Tanel Poder at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 I remember Oracle saying that char was going away - about 6 years ago.
 That's when they created varchar and varchar2.
 
 Is this a new rumor?
 
 VARCHAR3 type coming?
 
 Tanel.
 
 
 
 Tom Mercadante
 Oracle Certified Professional
 
 
 -Original Message-
 Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 11:09 AM
 To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
 
 
 Hi all:
 
 Someone told me that Oracle is planning to retire char
 variable and therefore they need to be replaced by
 varchar2. Has anyone heard anything about it?
 
 thanks
 
 Gene
 
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