FreeTDS Development Group

["Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>]

> From: freetds-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:freetds-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of RCS Computers
> Sent: May 25, 2004 3:39 PM
> 
> I have found several posts that talk about trailing spaces in 
> output from 
> the freetds driver.  I am connecting to a sybase database 
> with php and from 
> what I read, the reason I am getting spaces after the data I want is 
> because the column is a CHAR column and the size of the data 
> is < the size of the column.
...
> So, I would like to know if I can change the freetds in some 
> way, either 
> configuration or recompiliation, so that it mimics the Sybase 
> ODBC driver and trims the data of spaces automatically?

>From the driver's point of view, whether or not character data are 
>blank-padded and/or null-terminated  is a function of how the column is 
>bound to the host's memory buffer.  Cf. dbbind().  

AFAIK, the FreeTDS db-lib dbbind() works correctly, and if you're using the 
mssql extension with PHP, then you're using db-lib.   It may well be that PHP 
binds character data differently, depending on which driver it's using; I 
don't know.  That would explain what you're seeing.  

If you're seeing different behavior driver-for-driver i.e., the FreeTDS ODBC 
driver gives different results from Sybase's ODBC driver, then that would 
indicate a problem with FreeTDS's implementation.  Once it's narrowed down to 
exactly what's wrong, I doubt it would be difficult to fix.  

Unless it's determined that the FreeTDS bind function isn't working as 
advertised, you're going to have to look to PHP for a remedy.  That might 
involve changing its bind parameters; if so, it will almost certainly involve 
discovery and recompilation.  

HTH.  

--jkl

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