JR37296: INFORMATION SERVER 8.1 - SUPPORT NEEDED TO TREAT NULL AS VALUE TERMINATOR IN CHARACTER DATA FIELDS

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• Information Server 8.1 - Support needed to treat NULL as value
  terminator in character data fields
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  USERS AFFECTED:
  DataStage users with jobs that use Oracle Connector stage and
  that were created through the migration of jobs that used Oracle
  Enterprise stage.
  ****************************************************************
  PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
  When a variable-length character field value is mapped to a
  fixed-length character field value in a parallel job, any
  remaining characters in the target field are padded with the
  character specified in the APT_STRING_PADCHAR environment
  variable. By default this padding character is a binary zero
  character (NULL character) 0x0.
  
  Oracle Enterprise stage treats 0x0 character as the value
  terminator for the character data that it receives on the input
  link (except for bulk load scenario). It truncates the value at
  the NULL character boundary and passes the truncated data to
  Oracle. And if the data is truncated to a zero-length string
  (since the first character in the data was NULL character) then
  Oracle writes NULL value to the target table for that field.
  
  Oracle Connector on the other hand always treats input character
  data as-is and passes it as-is to Oracle. This includes any NULL
  characters in the input character data. Oracle then writes the
  characters as-is to the target table.
  
  The request was made to provide support to configure Oracle
  Connector to behave in a consistent way with the legacy Oracle
  Enterprise stage in regard to the truncation of input character
  values at the NULL character boundary.
  
  ****************************************************************
  RECOMMENDATION:
  Install patch JR37296.
  ****************************************************************
  

Problem conclusion

• A new environment variable was defined for the Oracle Connector
  with the name CC_ORA_NULL_CHAR_ACTION. This environment variable
  is applicable for Oracle Connector stage running on parallel
  canvas. Also it applies only to input (key) records for sparse
  lookup mode and for input records for all write modes except
  Bulk load mode. It applies only to fields of Char, VarChar,
  LongVarChar, NChar, NVarChar and LongNVarChar DataStage types.
  
  When set to value TRUNCATE it causes the connector to treat NULL
  character as value terminator in the character data retrieved on
  the input link. If the truncated value is a zero-length value,
  NULL is inserted in the target.
  
  When set to FAIL it causes the connector to log a fatal error
  message and stop the job when it encounters any NULL characters
  in the input character data. The error message indicates which
  field contained the NULL character(s).
  
  Otherwise when not set or set to another value, the NULL
  character is treated as any other character. The value is passed
  to Oracle as-is, along with any NULL characters. This is the
  default behavior for the connector.
  
  Note that in cases when this environment variable applies and is
  set to value TRUNCATE or FAIL the LongVarChar and LongNVarChar
  DataStage columns are treated as VarChar and NVarChar columns,
  respectively. No piecewise or LOB operations are performed on
  target for the values of those fields. Instead, the values are
  treated as atomic values (like in the case of VarChar and
  NVarChar types).
  
  In general, the CC_ORA_NULL_CHAR_ACTION environment variable
  should only be used in migrated jobs from Oracle Enterprise
  stage to Oracle Connector stage to provide consistent behavior
  with the Oracle Enterprise stage in regard to the described
  truncation, and only when this consistency is critical. The
  recommended alternative approach is to update the migrated jobs
  that were relying on this truncation behavior so that they work
  correctly with the default connector behavior, which is to pass
  character data as-is from input link to the database, including
  any NULL characters.
  
  The value FAIL for the CC_ORA_NULL_CHAR_ACTION environment
  variable can be used to help with detecting jobs in which the
  described truncation would happen.
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  WIS DATASTAGE

• Fixed component ID

  5724Q36DS

Applicable component levels

• R810 PSN

     UP