Version: 2.21
A new IFX_PAD_VARCHAR environment
variable can be used to control how
Dynamic Server sends and receives VARCHAR or NVARCHAR data types.
When IFX_PAD_VARCHAR is set
to 0, only the portion of a VARCHAR or
NVARCHAR value that contains data is sent to or from the server. For example,
to send the string "ABC" from a column declared as VARCHAR(255),
only three (3) bytes would be transmitted using the 0 setting.
When IFX_PAD_VARCHAR is set
to 1, the entire data structure that holds the
value is transmitted, or 255 bytes in the previous example.
The effect of the IFX_PAD_VARCHAR
setting on performance is context-sensitive.
When transmitting data over a low-bandwidth network, for example, the 0 setting
might improve performance by reducing the total amount of transmitted data.
In
a high-bandwidth network, however, a setting of 1 might improve performance,
if the amount of CPU time required to process variable-length packets were
greater than the time that was required to send the entire character stream.