I have a table that is defined as
CREATE TABLE "PPNAT"."TB6537"
("CALICENSEID" CHARACTER(13) FOR BIT DATA NOT NULL,
------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------
)

Can some one here tell the me the usage for the datatype CHARACTER(13) FOR BIT DATA??In what scenarios it can be used??

Does it have the value of 0 and 1 ??

Thanks

The data is stored as binary, but is output as hex values. The length is the number of bytes, so the output would be twice the length since there are two hex values for each byte:

create table bit_data (COL1 CHAR(5) FOR BIT DATA);

insert into bit_data values (x'4f33ca8b90');

select * from bit_data;

COL1
-------------
x'4F33CA8B90'

This is usefull if you want to store binary data that contains non-printable characters such as a picture, sound file, or something smaller that is stored as binary.

Thanks Marcus.

What does 00 mean in hex?? When i pull output of a table file that has char for bit data it has several 00 values in it.
Do they mean blank spaces that are padded towards the end of a field??

No, it means binary zeros. If you don't understand binary data and its hex representations, then you should go elsewhere to learn about that before asking any more questions in this forum.

BTW: If you are using ascii code set, then a blank is represented by hex 20 (x'20').

Another aspect of FOR BIT DATA data types is that no code page conversions apply. After all, it is binary data and not text data that will be stored.