Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) Data Types - VARCHAR

Versions: Informix Dynamic Server 11.x, 10.x, 9.x and 7.x

Infromix - VARCHAR
Syntax	VARCHAR[(n [,r])]
Data	Variable-length character data, single-byte and multibyte character sets
Parameters	n is the maximum number of bytes, r is the minimum number of bytes reserved for column
Range	1 ⇐ n ⇐ 255, 0 ⇐ r ⇐ n
Default	n is 1, r is 0
Padding	Not right-padded with spaces to n
Trailing Spaces	Not removed when the value is stored and retrieved
Storage Size	Actual entry length
Synonyms	CHARACTER VARYING
Standards	ANSI SQL

Example:

CREATE TABLE t_varchar (c1 VARCHAR(10,3));

Informix VARCHAR - Equivalents in Other Databases

Database	Data Type and Conversion
Oracle	VARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 4000/charsize
SQL Server	VARCHAR(n \| max), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 8000, 2G if max is specified
MySQL	VARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 65535/charsize
PostgreSQL	VARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 1G
Sybase ASE	VARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ pagesize (2K, 4K, 8K or 16K)
HP Neoview	VARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ (32708 - size of other columns)
Ingres	VARCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 32000; TEXT(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 32000

Related Data Types in Informix

Data Types
Fixed-length Character Data	CHAR(n)	NCHAR(n)
Variable-length Character Data	NVARCHAR(n,r)	LVARCHAR(n)
Character Large Objects	TEXT	CLOB

All Data Types

Oracle

SQL Server

IBM DB2

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Sybase ASE

Sybase ASA

Informix DS

Teradata

HP Neoview

Interbase/Firebird

Ingres