DUMP
Purpose
This function returns the byte length and the character set of string
, as well as the internal representation of the characters
specified by start position start
and length as length
.
Syntax
dump::=
Usage Notes
- The argument
format
specifies the format of the return value. There are four valid format-values:- 8: Octal notation
- 10: Decimal notation (default)
- 16: Hexadecimal notation
- 17: ASCII characters are directly printed, multi-byte-characters are printed in hexadecimal format.
- The argument
length
specifies the maximal number of selected characters beginning at start positionstart
. Iflength=0
all possible characters are selected. For negative numbers the absolute value oflength
will be used. - The argument
start
specifies the start position of the character selection. If the character length ofstring
is less than the absolute value of start the function returnsNULL
. For negative numbers the start position is set to the absolute value ofstart
counted from the right (Default=1). - If the argument
string
isNULL
the function returns the character string'NULL'
.