CHAR provides for fixed-length storage of strings.
Syntax
CHAR[ACTER] [(length)]
length is
an unsigned integer literal designating the length in bytes. The default
length for a CHAR is 1, and the maximum size of length is 254.
Corresponding compile-time Java type
java.lang.String
JDBC metadata type (java.sql.Types)
CHAR
Derby inserts spaces to pad
a string value shorter than the expected length. Derby truncates
spaces from a string value longer than the expected length. Characters other
than spaces cause an exception to be raised. When comparison boolean operators
are applied to CHARs, the shorter string is padded with spaces to the length
of the longer string.
When CHARs and VARCHARs are mixed in expressions,
the shorter value is padded with spaces to the length of the longer value.
The
type of a string constant is CHAR.
Examples
-- within a string constant use two single quotation marks
-- to represent a single quotation mark or apostrophe
VALUES 'hello this is Joe''s string'
-- create a table with a CHAR field
CREATE TABLE STATUS (
STATUSCODE CHAR(2) NOT NULL
CONSTRAINT PK_STATUS PRIMARY KEY,
STATUSDESC VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL
);
