Alpha Field Size

[David Lieb]

I recall that in past versions of 4D the number of bytes taken up by an
alpha field was determined by the actual data in the field, not the length
defined in the structure. So there was no size penalty if you declared all
your alphas with the max size, 80 chars.

Am I recalling correctly? And is this true in v11, i.e. no penalty to
declaring all alphas with length 255?

Thanks,

David
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[Peter Schumacher-2]

David,

in v11 I started using TEXT only (mostly).

Am 04.11.2009 um 21:51 schrieb David Lieb:

> And is this true in v11, i.e. no penalty to
> declaring all alphas with length 255?

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[Chuck Miller-2]

Depends upon whether 2004 or v11.

If 2004 declaring strings of 80, or 255 takes that amount of memory  
even of the average string length is 10. I know this is true of arrays  
and think it is also true for variables and fields
see page 205 LRM

In v11 all strings are really text.

Regards

Chuck
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On Nov 4, 2009, at 3:51 PM, David Lieb wrote:

> I recall that in past versions of 4D the number of bytes taken up by  
> an
> alpha field was determined by the actual data in the field, not the  
> length
> defined in the structure. So there was no size penalty if you  
> declared all
> your alphas with the max size, 80 chars.
>
> Am I recalling correctly? And is this true in v11, i.e. no penalty to
> declaring all alphas with length 255?
>
> Thanks,

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[David Lieb]

Thanks. Which version of the Language Ref were you referring to? I couldn't
find a relevant p.205.

David

On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 7:50 PM, Chuck Miller wrote:

> Depends upon whether 2004 or v11.
>
> If 2004 declaring strings of 80, or 255 takes that amount of memory
> even of the average string length is 10. I know this is true of arrays
> and think it is also true for variables and fields
> see page 205 LRM
>
> In v11 all strings are really text.
>
> Regards
>
> Chuck
> ...
>
> On Nov 4, 2009, at 3:51 PM, David Lieb wrote:
>
> > I recall that in past versions of 4D the number of bytes taken up by
> > an
> > alpha field was determined by the actual data in the field, not the
> > length
> > defined in the structure. So there was no size penalty if you
> > declared all
> > your alphas with the max size, 80 chars.
> >
> > Am I recalling correctly? And is this true in v11, i.e. no penalty to
> > declaring all alphas with length 255?
>

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[Jim Dorrance]

sorry, test


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[Chuck Miller-2]

I was in 2004.6 language ref manual. Do search for  Arrays and Memory
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On Nov 5, 2009, at 7:30 AM, David Lieb wrote:

> Thanks. Which version of the Language Ref were you referring to? I  
> couldn't
> find a relevant p.205.

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[David Lieb]

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 12:08 PM, Peter Schumacher wrote:

> David,
>
> in v11 I started using TEXT only (mostly).
>
> Am 04.11.2009 um 21:51 schrieb David Lieb:
>
> > And is this true in v11, i.e. no penalty to
> > declaring all alphas with length 255?
>


Thanks for your input.

I see now from another thread and from exporting the structure definition to
xml that internally Alpha fields have the same type (10) as Text fields
stored in the record. (Type for Text stored outside the record is 14). (Note
for anyone who might be confused as I was, these Types are not the same
numbers as returned by the Type command).

Also, it appears you can now use the ORDER BY editor and ORDER BY command
with Text fields. (No more need to use ORDER BY FORMULA or arrays to just
sort on a text field).

It appears that there's no more need for alpha fields other than to limit
the number of characters to something below 255. Anyone disagree?

Peter, I take it you haven't had any problems with that approach?

David
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