Re: SELECT CAST(123 AS char) -> 1

On 2008-02-12 16:17, Ken Johanson wrote:
> Dean Gibson (DB Administrator) wrote:
> ...
>
> I'm guessing you declare an explicit length of 1 (for portability), or
> do you "CAST (x as char)"? And one might ask in what context we'd need
> CHAR(1) on a numeric type, or else if substr/ing or left() make the
> code more readable for other data types..
>

Actually, I just write "CHAR" for a length of 1.

> > What is wrong with using VARCHAR for your
> purpose????????????????????????????
>
> Simply that a commonly used database (my) does not support it.

By "my", do you mean "MySQL", or "MyDatabase"? If the latter, then
while it's your business decision (and/or that of your customers), the
availability of decent, free databases should make a compelling case for
anyone using anything else, to migrate (and never look back) to
something full-featured.

It's like requiring portable C code to use the old, pre-ANSI style of
function declarations, because some old C compilers might not support
the ANSI style. I think Richard Stallman of the FSF takes that
position, but I don't know of anyone else (although I'm sure there are
exceptions).

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