ecpg and VARCHAR

Hello developers,

I'd like to get some information on VARCHAR types with ecpg. If I
declare a VARCHAR without any size information I get a compilation error
from my gcc 3.4.4:

--- file z.pgc ----
int main()
{
EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
VARCHAR v;
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
return 0;
}
-------------------
z.pgc: In function `main':
z.pgc:4: error: size of array `arr' is negative

Now I suppose this negative declaration should have initialized an empty
array and the generated sql code then allocates the space as needed?

If I declared the VARCHAR with a size everything works fine. However I'd
like to know if the characters in the array contain a trailing 0 or if I
have to set this explicitely?

And then I'd like to know which is the preferred way to retrieve "text"
columns which contain arbitrary length texts with ecpg?

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