What is the maximum length of varchar allowed

harsh_cs31 · Post by **harsh_cs31** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:56 am

Hi,

Iam using varchar(max), varchar(4000) and varchar(5000) in the ODBC Source.
I think such large types are not allowed.
Can sombody tell me what is the max type I can use for datastage.

Thanks!

ArndW · Post by **ArndW** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:01 am

DataStage can use much larger strings. Oracle and DB2, for instance, have limits on VarChar() sizes and I am fairly certain that the ODBC definition also limits strings.

Specifically, which database and version are you interested in?

harsh_cs31 · Post by **harsh_cs31** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:08 am

Iam using the SQL Server 2005 as the DB and Datastage 8.1 Parallel Version.
It is giving me an error datatype not supported because of the lenght of these three columns.

When trying to load using ODBC, datastage is not able to do so.

ArndW · Post by **ArndW** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:32 am

Important is also your table definition, I would think that if your table definition as well as ODBC definition is VarChar(4000) that should go through without a problem.

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:59 pm

DataStage IS able to do so, but may you have to tune the maximum number of columns and, probably, maximum buffer size for the DSN. You do this in the uvodbc.config file using MAXFETCHCOLS and MAXFETCHBUFF parameters. Of course, the maximum size of a VarChar column is limited by the ODBC driver itself. It's probably 4096. Beyond that you have to go to LongVarChar, which goes to 65536 for most ODBC drivers.