Database link: Wrong column length from cursor

[Dmitry Duginov]

Here's a problem

--------------------------------------------
set serveroutput on
DECLARE
CURSOR cur is select ed_no, length(ed_no) as len from
listtext@pubdb. world; BEGIN
for cur_rec in cur
loop
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT _Line
('>'||cur_rec.e d_no||'<'||to_c har(cur_rec.len ) );
end loop;
end;
/
-------------------------------------------

this returns

>ABC <3
>XYZ <3

....

i.e. result has correct value plus six trailing spaces

Column ed_no is CHAR(3)

I have the same problem with all CHAR columns in all tables. The
column length is tripled and trailing spaces added if I define the
cursor through the database link.

However, if I login to that database directly and get rid of
"@pubdb.wor ld" in cursor definition, everything works fine and the
code returns

>ABC<3
>XYZ<3

....

Any comments, suggestions, workarounds, please... This bug (I believe
it's a bug) gonna ruin a month of my work :(((

I NEED the database link and I cannot employ RTRIM() everywhere.

Regards,
Dmitry

[Frank]

Re: Database link: Wrong column length from cursor

Dmitry Duginov wrote:

Here's a problem
>
--------------------------------------------
set serveroutput on
DECLARE
CURSOR cur is select ed_no, length(ed_no) as len from
listtext@pubdb. world; BEGIN
for cur_rec in cur
loop
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT _Line
('>'||cur_rec.e d_no||'<'||to_c har(cur_rec.len ) );
end loop;
end;
/
-------------------------------------------
>
this returns
>
>

>>ABC <3
>>XYZ <3

>
...
>
i.e. result has correct value plus six trailing spaces
>
Column ed_no is CHAR(3)
>
I have the same problem with all CHAR columns in all tables. The
column length is tripled and trailing spaces added if I define the
cursor through the database link.
>
However, if I login to that database directly and get rid of
"@pubdb.wor ld" in cursor definition, everything works fine and the
code returns
>
>

>>ABC<3
>>XYZ<3

>
...
>
Any comments, suggestions, workarounds, please... This bug (I believe
it's a bug) gonna ruin a month of my work :(((
>
I NEED the database link and I cannot employ RTRIM() everywhere.
>
Regards,
Dmitry

Could it be someone is concatenating empty fields?
If the programmer is believing these are varchars, concatenating
not initialized (NULL) fields make no difference.
CHAR fields start off with 3 spaces. CHAR(3)||CHAR(3 )||CHAR(3) yields
9 characters
--
Regards, Frank van Bortel