OpenEdge Data Management: DataServer for Microsoft SQL Server

Chapter 2: Initial Programming Considerations
9. For more information on unsupported data types, see the “Working with unsupported data types” section
on page 74.
Working with unsupported data types
You can read data from tables containing unsupported data types by using two
possible workarounds – first, by creating a view or, secondly, by using a stored
procedure.
To use the first workaround, create a view in the SQL Server database that excludes
the unsupported column so that only supported data types are available. For more
information on views, see the “MS SQL Server data source views” section on page 68.
To use the second workaround, write your own stored procedure with the RUN STORED
PROCEDURE statement or write SQL into a SEND-SQL-STATEMENT stored procedure call
that expresses Data Manipulation Language (DML) adequate to handle the table object
without the unsupported types. You can omit the unsupported data type in your DML
statements such that they are not returned in the result set or are CAST to data types
that are supported. For more information on stored procedures, see Chapter 3,
“RDBMS Stored Procedure Details.”
Working with non-updatable data types
Because non-updatable columns can be read, they can also be dumped to a .d data
file. But, these .d data files cannot be loaded with the load .d utility because of their
non-updatable column status. The non-updatable values are applied by the server and
therefore cannot be retained from the client. Use foreign database tools to dump and
load tables with non-updatable columns that are controlled by the server. Alternatively,
write a program to read data from your .d data file with non-updatable types into a
temp table omitting the non-updatable columns using the EXCEPT phrase when you
write them.
Processing considerations for 32-bit and 64-bit data
types
Starting with OpenEdge Release 10.1B, DataServer for MS SQL Server supports an
existing or new 32-bit INTEGER data type defined in ABL. However, the internal bit size
for an INTEGER data type and ROWID will automatically expand from a 32-bit field size to
a 64-bit field size to accommodate larger values. In most situations, this expansion also
supports the option to convert a database column from a 32-bit INTEGER to a 64-bit
INT64 without performing a dump and load. For more details about ROWIDs, see the
“ROWID function” section on page 110. Also, refer to the following sources for
additional language details about INT64 and ROWID:
• Release 10 4GL Data Types Web paper available at the Web paper category of
the PSDN Web site located at
http://communities.progress.com/pcom/community/psdn.
• OpenEdge Development: ABL Reference
74 OpenEdge Data Management: DataServer for Microsoft SQL Server