SODBC_COLLAPSE

Reduce number of columns for ODBC-enabled applications

The SODBC_COLLAPSE environment variable compresses arrayed fields into a single column if the number of elements in a single field is greater than or equal to a limit you specify.

Value

A positive number that specifies the limit for the number of elements that can become individual columns.

Discussion

Use the SODBC_COLLAPSE environment variable if a generated table has more than 254 columns, a condition that might occur if the original structure contains multi-dimensional arrayed fields that have been mapped into separate element columns during system catalog generation. Some ODBC-enabled applications do not permit tables with more than 254 columns.

For example, if you decide that a field with more than 10 elements should be combined into one column, set SODBC_COLLAPSE to 10. If your structure has three fields—one with 6 elements, one with 10 elements, and one with 12 elements—the generated table has eight columns: 6 + 1 + 1. Because the second and third fields have reached the limit, each of these becomes a single column.

Setting location

The environment where you run dbcreate.

Used by

xfODBC