WinSQL » Knowledge base

Document information

Document ID:	1961
Subject:	ODBC driver bug related to table columns
Creation date:	2/23/12 9:09 AM
Last modified on:	12/13/18 12:00 PM

SQLColumn VS SELECT * query

WinSQL uses several metadata functions in the ODBC driver to get information from the back-end database. One such method is getting column information for tables. There are two ways to get information about columns in a table:

1. Using the SQLColumn function in the ODBC API
2. Preparing a SELECT * FROM TableName query and analyzing the columns returned.

WinSQL uses both methods to get the meta data for columns in a table. The second method pull a couple of additional attributes that are not fetched by the first method alone.

Theoretically speaking, after preparing a SQL statement, the ODBC driver should be able to return the columns returned by a SELECT * query. In rare occasions, the driver returns columns for the previous query, which is a bug in the ODBC driver. When you run WinSQL in debug mode it will log a WARNING a warning message complaining about this problem.

Work around

• Start WinSQL
• Click Open Data Folder under the File menu. This will open Windows Explorer.
  
• Locate WinSQL.conf file and open it in any editor such as Notepad. This file uses Windows INI format to store configuration parameters.
  
• Add a new parameter called UseSQLColumnsToFetchFieldInfo and set its value to true. The file after modification should look like:
  
  
  
• Save the file and restart WinSQL

This parameter will cause WinSQL to only use the first method, by-passing the bug in the driver

Add a comment to this document

Do you have a helpful tip related to this document that you'd like to share with other users?

Your Name

Email

Hide my email address

Captcha

Your Tip

Submit Tip