VARCHAR_BIT_FORMAT scalar function

expression

An expression that returns a value of any built-in numeric, character-string, or graphic-string data type that is not a LOB. A numeric or graphic argument is cast to a VARCHAR data type before evaluating the function. expression must not return bit data..

All leading and trailing blanks are removed from expression before evaluating the function.

If a format-string is specified, the length of expression must be equal to the length of the format-string and the value of expression must conform to the template specified by the format-string. If aformat-string is not specified, the value of expression (after removing leading and trailing blanks) should be an even number of characters from the ranges '0' to '9', 'a' to 'f', and 'A' to 'F'. If the length is an odd number of characters, the string is padded on the right with one '0' character.

format-string

An expression that returns a built-in character string or graphic string data type. format-string contains a template for how the value for expression is to be interpreted. format-string must not return bit data.

The valid format strings are: 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx' and 'XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX', where each 'x' or 'X' corresponds to one hexadecimal digit in the result. If 'X' is specified, the corresponding hexadecimal digit must not be a lower case character. If 'x' is specified, the corresponding hexadecimal digit must not be an upper case character.

The result is a varying-length bit data string. The length attribute of the result is half the length attribute of expression. If a format-string is not specified, the actual length is half the actual length of expression (after leading and trailing blanks have been removed and padding to an even number of characters). If a format-string is specified, the actual length is half the actual length of the format-string (after removing the non-digit separator characters). If any of the arguments can be null, the result can be null; if any of the arguments is null, the result is the null value.