Question

Difference between length and vsize functions

Oracle, Database, DB2, SQL, Oracle Database Versions, Oracle 10g, 7 and earlier, Oracle 8i, Oracle 9i, Oracle development

Hi
I have got same results for both the vsize and length functions. Why the two functions are giving the same result? Can any one clarify this?

Thanks in advance,

Regards,
P. Karthik

LENGTH gives the length of a string, in symbols. So, 'abc' has a length of 3, whether stored as CHAR or GRAPHIC. The size of a field, on the other hand, is the amount of storage required for the field. For fixed length character fields, you use 1 byte per character. For fixed length graphic fields, it's 2 bytes per symbol. For variable-length fields, add 2 bytes for the length indicator.

So, if you have a fixed-length char field, length and size match.
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