Firebird queries using chars/varchar

Question

I am using SQLManager Lite for firebird and it was impossible so far to write a query which would do an operation on char/varchar columns. Character set is win1252.

A query like

select * from Person where name = 'John'

won't return any results despite the fact that the record exists in the database. A similar query on a numerical column works just fine. AM I am missing anything here?

Also, this query runs fine from my application. The only issue is that I would like to be able to run it within SQLManager Lite too. As a side note, values for char and varchar columns are not displayed properly within the same SQLManager Lite.

`char` columns are padded with spaces to the defined length (as required by the SQL standard). `varchar` is not. I can hardly see any reason to use `char` instead of `varchar`. — a_horse_with_no_name, Jan 21 '13 at 17:36
Even if the column is defined as char(1) the result will be the same. — Dan, Jan 21 '13 at 17:43
What you mean by "not displayed properly"? What is shown if you select * from table for the record where the name is 'John'? — jachguate, Jan 21 '13 at 17:49
@jachguate: If I look at the data in the table I will see only the first character of that char/varchar field — Dan, Jan 21 '13 at 18:47
@a_horse_with_no_name: my point was that it did not matter the length of the field. Be it varchar or char with length of 2048 or 1 the result is the same — Dan, Jan 21 '13 at 18:48
Are you sure character set is win1252 (ansi) and not a unicode charset? — jachguate, Jan 21 '13 at 18:50
Please post a script with `create table`, `insert` and `select` statements that show the problem. — a_horse_with_no_name, Jan 21 '13 at 18:50

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 21 '13 at 19:40

2

change to like

select * from Person where name like 'John'

answered Jan 21 '13 at 19:40

dataol

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What's the technical reason/idea behind this? – jachguate Jan 21 '13 at 21:49
I can't think of a reason why this would work and `name = 'John'` wouldn't – Mark Rotteveel Jan 22 '13 at 09:17

Firebird queries using chars/varchar

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