FreeTDS Development Group

["James K. Lowden" <jklowden AT freetds.org>]

On Mon, 23 Sep 2013 02:58:44 +0000
Chris Kings-Lynne <Chris.Kings-Lynne AT navitas.com> wrote:

> The dbcoltype() function returns code 47 for both varchar and
> datetimeoffset fields...is there any way to distinguish these - as
> they really are _rather_ different...

Less different than you might think, I'm afraid.  

If you connect to a server that supports datetimeoffset with TDS 7.2,
you're using a protocol for which no datetimeoffset datatype is
defined.  On your behalf, the server provides the data as a string,
which you see as VARCHAR.  That's what's known as backwards
compatibility.  

There are good reasons to update db-lib to support the new
datatypes, which after all are not so new anymore.  What is lacking
someone with time and interest.  

--jkl