Call Level Interface Guide and Reference

Use of VARCHAR FOR BIT DATA

Character data defined with the FOR BIT DATA clause is associated with a default C buffer type of SQL_C_BINARY. If data is defined as FOR BIT DATA, it is transferred to:

• SQL_C_BINARY buffers unchanged

• SQL_C_CHAR buffers as a character representation of the hexadecimal value of the data. Each byte is represented by two ASCII characters, (this means the SQL_C_CHAR buffer must be double the size of the FOR BIT DATA string.)

Existing applications that explicitly use SQL_C_CHAR with data defined as FOR BIT DATA, will get a different result and may receive only half of the original data. The initialization keyword, BITDATA, can be set to 0 to force DB2 CLI to treat FOR BIT DATA in the same was as previous versions.

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