The LVARCHAR type in IBM Informix databases

Native LVARCHAR type of Informix is now mapped by default to a large VARCHAR in schema file.

Starting with version 2.40, the fgldbsch database schema extractor converts now by default IBM® Informix® LVARCHAR(N) types to VARCHAR2(N) with type code 201. Before 2.40, you had to pass -cv AAAB... option to avoid a conversion error when generating the schema file.

The static SQL syntax has been enhanced, to support the LVARCHAR type name in DDL statements such as CREATE TABLE. The non-Informix ODI drivers have been adapted to convert LVARCHAR type names to VARCHAR.

Two-Pass reports can now use VARCHAR types with a size greater than 255 bytes (the temporary table will be created with an LVARCHAR column). However, the index is created as well, and IBM Informix IDS (version 11 when writing these lines) has a size limitation for indexes. You may get an SQL error -517 if the VARCHAR variable used to group / order rows in the report routine exceeds ~350 bytes (see IDS SQL error -517 for details).