Inserting string in FOR BIT DATA column in DB2

Question

When i try inserting a string value in a column in DB2, which is defined as CHAR(15) FOR BIT DATA, i notice that it gets converted into some other format, probably hexadecimal.

On retrieving the data, i get a byte array, and on trying to convert it back to ASCII, using System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString, i get back a string of some junk characters.

Anyone faced this issue? Any resolution?

Thanks in advance.

Solution

For Bit Data prevents the code page convertion between the client and the server. This is normally used to insert binary data, instead of strings.

Please, take a look at this forum, where many cases are proposed and solved: http://www.dbforums.com/db2/1663992-bit-data.html

You could eventually make a cast to database page (it depends you platform)

CAST(c1 AS CHAR(n) FOR SBCS DATA)

CAST (<forbitdataexpression> AS [VARCHAR|CHAR][(<n>)] FOR [SBCS|DBCS] DATA)

References

• http://bytes.com/topic/db2/answers/180874-problem-db2-field-type-char-n-bit-data
• http://bytes.com/topic/db2/answers/182124-function-convert-bit-data-column-string
• http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/db2luw/v9r7/topic/com.ibm.db2.luw.sql.ref.doc/doc/r0023459.html