Tom,
there is more more issue with the SQLAnywhere platform I am writing, and
it would be great if you could give me some idea: SQLAnyhwere doesn't
implement LeftTrim2, so I am looking for a workaround. In fact, I found two:
(a) Rewrite by using regular expressions what actually worked well in a
short interactive sql test on SQLAnyhwere: SUBSTR(a, PATINDEX(x,a))
where a is the original string, and x is built by the pattern "%[^c]%",
with "c" beeing the character to trim off. Actually I do not think that
this is working in TopLink, due to two reasons: (1) ExpressionOperator
is not able to repeat a parameter, what is needed to have "a" put twice
into the sql output. (2) ExpressionOperator is not able to provide a
value that is to be built from a pattern, what is needed to have
"%[^c]%" be provided as one string parameter's value.
(b) Make TopLink install a stored function into the database if it is
not already there, e. g.:
CREATE FUNCTION GlassFish_LeftTrim2(a LONG VARCHAR, c CHAR) BEGIN
...
END
But I think that there is no entry point in TopLink's
connect-to-database code that allows to check and install such a function.
So it seems that I have to provide the stored function manually before
running the tests, which is not nice, but works very well indeed.
What do you suggest to do now? Shall we live with it (not smart) or
shall I file a feature request?
Thanks
Markus