'Declaration
 
Public Overloads Overrides NotOverridable Function GetChars( _
   ByVal ordinal As Integer, _
   ByVal dataOffset As Long, _
   ByVal buffer() As Char, _
   ByVal bufferOffset As Integer, _
   ByVal length As Integer _
) As Long

'Usage
 
Dim instance As TdDataReader
Dim ordinal As Integer
Dim dataOffset As Long
Dim buffer() As Char
Dim bufferOffset As Integer
Dim length As Integer
Dim value As Long
 
value = instance.GetChars(ordinal, dataOffset, buffer, bufferOffset, length)

public override long GetChars( 
   int ordinal,
   long dataOffset,
   char[] buffer,
   int bufferOffset,
   int length
)

public:
int64 GetChars( 
   int ordinal,
   int64 dataOffset,
   array<char>^ buffer,
   int bufferOffset,
   int length
) override 

Parameters

ordinal

Column ordinal (see TdDataReader.GetOrdinal).

dataOffset

Specifies the index within the field from which to begin the read operation.

buffer

Indicates the buffer into which to copy the field.

bufferOffset

Specifies the index for the buffer to begin the copy operation.

length

Specifies the maximum number of characters to copy into the buffer.

Return Value

Use this method to retrieve columns of type CHAR, VARCHAR, CLOB, JSON or XML. GetChars method supports the concept of chunking. It can be called to retrieve the field in smaller manageable chunks. For example a 10 MB CLOB field can be retrieved in 32KB chunks. The number of characters copied into the buffer can be less than the length specified.

A null buffer reference should be passed to retrieve the size of the field, as opposed to the maximum size of the column retrieved using the GetSchemaTable method.
This will return the number of bytes for an Inline CLOB or
the number of characters for a Deferred CLOB or a non-Lob column.

Reference

TdDataReader Class
TdDataReader Members
Overload List