Working With Variable Data

One of the key design issues that is addressed in most DB2 applications is how to implement character data that varies in size from row to row. The basic trade-off is “ease-of-use and performance” versus “storage requirements.” It is possible to save storage space by using variable columns instead of placing small amounts of data in a large fixed space. Each variable column carries a 2-byte overhead, however, for storing the length of the data. Additionally, variable columns tend to increase CPU usage and can cause the update process to become...

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Fetching Multiple Rows

When you need to retrieve multiple rows, consider deploying a multi-row fetch to transfer more than one row using a single FETCH statement. This capability was added as of DB2 Version 8.A multi-row FETCH retrieves multiple rows at one time into column arrays in your application program. By fetching multiple rows at once, your request can become more efficient, especially for distributed requests. The performance improvement using multi-row FETCH in general depends on several factors, such as whether the request is distributed, the number of rows...

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