Description

PowerBuilder and InfoMaker provide a new DBParm parameter named FormatArgsAsExp for use with any of the following database interfaces on all supported platforms:

• IBM
• ODBC (if driver and backend DBMS support this feature)
• Oracle (all interfaces)
• Sybase InformationCONNECT DB2 Gateway interface
• Sybase Net-Gateway for DB2 interface

When you are using one of these database interfaces to access the database, FormatArgsAsExp controls whether PowerBuilder or InfoMaker converts a DataWindow or report retrieval argument of decimal data type to scientific (exponential) notation if the argument exceeds 12 digits.

Purpose

Setting FormatArgsAsExp may affect the speed of your DataWindow retrieval, especially if you are accessing large databases.

If FormatArgsAsExp is set to Yes (the default), PowerBuilder or InfoMaker converts a decimal retrieval argument to scientific notation if the argument exceeds 12 digits. Some DBMS optimizers may interpret the resulting scientific notation as a different data type and scan all rows in the table to find it. This can slow DataWindow retrieval if (for example) you are accessing a DB2 database with many large tables.

If you set FormatArgsAsExp to No, PowerBuilder or InfoMaker leaves the retrieval argument as a decimal and does not perform the default conversion to scientific notation. This speeds DataWindow retrieval for large databases.

Usage

As with any other DBParm parameter, you can set FormatArgsAsExp in the Database Profile Setup dialog box for your connection or in a PowerBuilder application script.

You must specify a value for FormatArgsAsExp before connecting to the database in PowerBuilder or InfoMaker.