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DATA_LENGTH in all_tab_columns in BYTE/CHAR???

XenofonOct 21 2010 — edited Oct 21 2010

Hi

in the Oracle 11gR2 or 10gR2 documentation you find the following description of ALL_TAB_COLUMNS.DATA_LENGTH.

DATA_LENGTH 	NUMBER 	NOT NULL 	Length of the column (*in bytes*)

But what about VARCHAR2 fields which have been created with

NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS='CHAR'

My observation is, that in 10g ALL_TAB_COLUMNS.DATA_LENGTH shows the length in what ever mode, you have created the table. So, if I have created a VARCHAR2 field as VARCHAR2(4 CHAR), then ALL_TAB_COLUMNS.DATA_LENGTH will show 4. In 11g however the field shows really the length in bytes. So I observed data_length=16 for a field which had been defined as VARCHAR2(4 CHAR) on a 11gR2 database with NLS_CHARACTERSET= "AL32UTF8".

Is there any contrary observation or experience?

This post has been answered by Dom Brooks on Oct 21 2010

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