The string operators in OpenEdge SQL consider the unit of length to be the character count, not a byte count or a column count.

Consider the syntax of the OpenEdge SQL LEFT function:

Table 1. 
LEFT ( character-string-expression , length )

LEFT evaluates character-string-expression and returns the leftmost length characters, whether single byte, double byte, or triple byte.

In the following expression, character-string-expression consists of a four characters: the first single byte, the second double byte, and the third and fourth single byte:



The preceding expression returns the following string, which consists of three characters, the second of which is double byte, for a total of four bytes: