Understanding Field Length Checking for Non-Unicode Databases

The maximum number of characters that are permitted in a PeopleSoft field varies, depending on the character set of the database. Because all components of PeopleTools use Unicode for internal storage, by default, field length checking occurs in terms of Unicode character counts. This calculation is appropriate for Unicode databases and for any SBCS databases.

However, if you are using a non-Unicode DBCS, special length checking must occur each time you move off a field to ensure that the string that you entered fits in the database column when the string is converted to the database’s character set.

For graphically sizing page fields, PeopleTools uses the Unicode length of the field as defined in Application Designer. For example, if a field is defined in Application Designer as a 10-character field, page fields in both the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture and the PeopleTools clients for Microsoft Windows allow 10 characters to be displayed unless manually resized by the developer.

However, if the database is encoded in a non-Unicode DBCS character set, such as Japanese Shift-JIS, special length validation must occur because the database column size is created relative to a byte count, not to a character count as is used by the simple field length validation.

For example, if a user enters 10 Japanese characters into a field that is defined as CHAR(10) in Application Designer, this string needs 20 bytes of storage in a nonshifting DBCS character set and 22 bytes of storage in a shifting character set. This 10-character input would fail insertion in both of these databases.

To address this issue, the page processor checks the Data Field Length Checking option on the PeopleTools Options page and performs character-set specific length validation against the contents of each field when the field is validated. Typically length validation occurs when the field’s FieldChange PeopleCode event fires, so the actual time of validation may differ, depending on whether your page uses deferred mode processing.