Enhancements to JDBC support for Version 5 Release 3

Several JDBC functions were enhanced for i5/OS™ Version 5 Release 3.

Enhanced JDBC functions for i5/OS Version 5 Release 3 include:

For information about enhanced JDBC functions for previous releases, see V5R2 enhancements to IBM® Toolbox for Java™ JDBC support.

UTF-8 and UTF-16 support
UTF-8 data is stored in a character field with a CCSID of 1208. A UTF-8 character is a variable number of bytes (one, two, three, or four) for a non-combining character, and any number of bytes for a combining character. The length specified for a character field is the maximum number of bytes the field can contain. You can tag the following data types with a UTF-8 1208 CCSID:
  • Fixed length character (CHAR)
  • Variable length character (VARCHAR)
  • Character LOB (CLOB)
UTF-16 data is stored in a graphic field with a CCSID of 1200. A UTF-16 character can be either two or four bytes (that is, Surrogate) in length for a non-combining character and any number of bytes for a combining character. The length specified for a graphic data field is the maximum number of two bytes characters the field can contain. You can tag the following data types with a UTF-16 1200 CCSID:
  • Fixed length graphic (GRAPHIC)
  • Variable length graphic (VARGRAPHIC)
  • Double-byte character LOB (DBCLOB)
Binary and Varbinary support
The BINARY and VARBINARY data types are similar to the CHAR and VARCHAR data types, but contain binary data rather than character data. BINARY fields have a fixed length. VARBINARY fields are of varying length. The BINARY and VARBINARY data types have the following characteristics:
  • The coded character set identifier (CCSID) for binary types is 65535
  • In assignments and comparisons, binary data types are compatible only with other binary data types (BINARY, VARBINARY, and BLOB)
  • The pad character for binary data types is x'00' instead of the blank character
  • In situations requiring trailing characters to be stripped to prevent truncation errors, x'00' characters are stripped instead of trailing blanks
  • When comparing binary data types, for two fields to be equal both the data and the lengths must be the same. Trailing zeros are not ignored in comparisons
  • When comparing binary data types, if two fields have different lengths, the shorter field is considered less than the longer field if the fields are the same up to the length of the shorter field
Increased Decimal Precision support
Decimal precision now supports up to 63 digits. Three properties were added, "minimum divide scale", "maximum precision", and "maximum scale" and six methods added to AS400JDBCDataSource, setMinimumDivideScale(int divideScale), getMinimumDivideScale(), setMaximumPrecision(int precision), getMaximumPrecision(), setMaximumScale(int scale), and getMaximumScale(). Minimum divide scale specifies the minimum scale value for the result of decimal division and is set to any number between 0 and 9. Maximum precision specifies the maximum decimal precision the database uses and is set to either 31 or 63. Maximum scale specifies the maximum scale the database uses and is set to any number between 0 and 63.
2 GB large object (LOB) support
Enhancements for IBM Toolbox for Java JDBC now allow the use of up to 2 GB LOBs support.
Insensitive cursor support
Cursor support now supports insensitive cursors. When using a ResultSet with TYPE_SCROLL_INSENSITIVE, an insensitive cursor is used. The ResultSet does not show changes to the underlying database while it is open.
Materialized Query Table support
Returns "MATERIALIZED QUERY TABLE" as the TABLE_TYPE in a call to DatabaseMetaData.getTables().
Parent topic: JDBC