DefinedSize Property

Indicates the data capacity of a Field object.

Return Value

Returns a Long value that reflects the defined size of a field, which depends on the data type of the field object; see Type for more information. For a field that uses a fixed-length data type, the return value is the size of the data type in bytes. For a field that uses a variable-length data type, this is one of the following:

1. The maximum length of the field in characters (for adVarChar and adVarWChar) or in bytes (for adVarBinary, and adVarNumeric) if the field has a defined length. For example, adVarChar(5) field has a maximum length of 5.

2. The maximum length of the data type in characters (for adChar and adWChar) or in bytes (for adBinary and adNumeric) if the field does not have a defined length.

3. ~0 (bitwise, the value is not 0; all bits are set to 1) if neither the field nor the data type has a defined maximum length.

4. For data types that do not have a length, this is set to ~0 (bitwise, the value is not 0; all bits are set to 1).

Remarks

Use the DefinedSize property to determine the data capacity of a Field object.

The DefinedSize and ActualSize properties are different. For example, consider a Field object with a declared type of adVarChar and a DefinedSize property value of 50, containing a single character. The ActualSize property value it returns is the length in bytes of the single character.

Applies To

Field Object

See Also

ActualSize and DefinedSize Properties Example (VB)
ActualSize and DefinedSize Properties Example (VC++)
ActualSize Property (ADO)