Tim


Is it just for comparison or are the trailing spaces trimmed?

Roy Lambert

Roy,

<< Is it just for comparison or are the trailing spaces trimmed? >>

Just for comparison, although that effectively is the best of all worlds.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

"Tim Young [Elevate Software]" <timyoung@elevatesoft.com> wrote in
news:2A1800DA-E651-4EFC-966B-284A4B608A0F@news.elevatesoft.com:

> Roy,
>
><< Is it just for comparison or are the trailing spaces trimmed? >>
>
> Just for comparison, although that effectively is the best of all
> worlds.
>

I agree (at last!).

It's important not to have to deal with trailing blanks when searching
(on both CHARs and VARCHARs), but it could be important to find trailing
blanks if someone put them there on purpose, when using the field after
you've found the record it's an index for.

I take back my "This is all pretty non-intuitive... :-\ " of a few
messages ago

One thing left to test:

if you search for "myValue " because that's what someone typed in, will
you find:
(a) "myValue"  
(b) "myValue "
(c) "myValue  "

i.e. does the trimming only happen for what's in the index, or also for
what's being looked for?

It would be logical IMHO for that not to find (a) but to find (b) and
(c) - we've got to be responsible for something at our end, after all!

--
Chris
(XP-Pro + Delphi 7 Architect + DBISAM 4.25 build 4 + EDB 1.02 build 1)

Chris,

<< I take back my "This is all pretty non-intuitive... :-\ " of a few
messages ago  >>

Don't worry, I can't remember what most people told me yesterday, let alone
any further back.

<< if you search for "myValue " because that's what someone typed in, will
you find:

(a) "myValue"
(b) "myValue "
(c) "myValue  "

i.e. does the trimming only happen for what's in the index, or also for
what's being looked for? >>

All of the above, because when the comparisons are made during the index or
row searches, both the column value being compared and the constant value
that you're searching on are effectively trimmed to make the trailing spaces
irrelevant.

The rule to remember is that in any comparison of strings, trailing spaces
are ignored for the purposes of the comparison.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

"Tim Young [Elevate Software]" <timyoung@elevatesoft.com> wrote in
news:31E248B6-F2B0-49F8-A525-FD120E178ED8@news.elevatesoft.com:

> The rule to remember is that in any comparison of strings, trailing
> spaces are ignored for the purposes of the comparison.
>

Fine. Thanks for all the clarification.

--
Chris
(XP-Pro + Delphi 7 Architect + DBISAM 4.25 build 4 + EDB 1.02 build 1)