10 The Sybase Data Provider : Data Types

Data Types
Table 10-2 through Table 10-5 list the data types supported by the Sybase data provider:
Table 10-2 maps the Sybase data types to the .NET Framework types.
Table 10-3 maps the data types the data provider uses if only the System.Data.DbType is specified.
Table 10-4 maps the data types the data provider uses to infer a data type if the provider-specific type and the System.Data.DbType are not provided.
Table 10-5 maps the data types the data provider uses when streams are used as inputs to Long data parameters.
Mapping Sybase Data Types to .NET Framework Data Types
Table 10-2 lists the data types supported by the Sybase data provider and how they are mapped to the .NET Framework types. You can use the table to infer the data types that are used when a DataSet is filled using a DataAdapter. This table also identifies the accessors to use for accessing the data when a DataReader object is used directly.
In this table, the columns are defined as follows:
 

1
Supported only for Sybase ASE 15 or higher.

2
Supported only for Sybase 12.5.1 or higher.

NOTE FOR USERS OF SYBASE ADAPTIVE SERVER 12.5.1 AND HIGHER: The DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET Sybase data provider supports extended new limits (XNL) for character and binary columns—columns with lengths greater than 255.
Mapping Parameter Data Types
The type of the parameter is specific to each DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET data provider. The Sybase data provider must convert the parameter value to a native format before sending it to the server. The best way for an application to describe a parameter is to use the data provider-specific type enumeration. In generic programming circumstances, the provider-specific type may not be available. In this situation, the data type must be inferred from either the System.Data.DbType or from the .NET Framework type of the parameter’s value.
The Sybase data provider uses the following order when inferring the data type of a parameter:
Table 10-3 shows the mapping that is used if only the System.Data.DbType is specified.

1
Supported only on Sybase 15 or higher.

Table 10-4 shows the mapping that the data provider uses to infer a data type if neither the provider-specific type or the System.Data.DbType are provided.
Data Types Supported With Stream Objects
Table 10-5 lists the data types with which the Sybase data provider supports the use of streams as inputs to Long data parameters.
See “Using Streams as Input to Long Data Parameters” for more information about using streams.