Descriptions and long descriptions

There is a limit to the amount of data that you can store in the description fields. Each database has its own specified limit. If you know that you need to store more data than is available in the description field, you can add a long description field to an attribute.

The description field object is associated with the VARCHAR (variable length character) column. This column can hold a maximum number of bytes it can hold. If you associate a long description field with an attribute, a long description is added to the VARCHAR column. Long descriptions are stored in the character large object (CLOB) column of the long description (LONGDESCRIPTION) table. If you include a long description field, you can store a smaller amount of data in the main table and a larger amount in the long description table.

The long description data can contain any alphanumeric data. This data appears in the Long Description field from the user interface.

Each long description must have a long description owner. When you select the Long Description Owner check box on the Attributes tab of the Database Configuration application, you become the owner of the long description. When the Long Description Owner check box is selected for an attribute for the first time, the HASLD (has long description) column is added to the main record.

An icon exists or can be added beside the description field on the UI. The appearance of the icon changes when long description data exists. HASLD indicates that a long description exists.

The default value for HASLD is 0. When data is entered in the long description, the value of HASLD changes to 1.