Mike, all,
Mike Aubury wrote:
> [[...]]
>
> So - the next question is...
> Is there anyway in code I can find the 'fiddle' factor (1,3,or now possibly 4)
> that I need to use to divide by to get back to the character width specified
> in the CREATE TABLE ?
In the "information_schema" database, which you can use to access schema
information, MySQL differs between "CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH" (the
number of characters) and "CHARACTER_OCTET_LENGTH" (number of bytes).
But this need not be the same factor for all columns:
If you specify one with "charset latin1", it is one octet (byte) per
character.
So I don't see any use in such a constant factor.
And sorry, no, off-hand I don't know a way to programmatically ask the
server for this factor.
If you need to know the number of characters specified for some column,
you should access the "information_schema" database and get all those
details, including character set and collation.
HTH,
Jörg
--
Joerg Bruehe, MySQL Build Team, joerg@stripped (+49 30) 417 01 487
Sun Microsystems GmbH, Sonnenallee 1, D-85551 Kirchheim-Heimstetten
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