ODBC Problem with Example

[Charles F. Schatz]

I am running Cygwin under Win2k Professional. The latest ODBC drivers from
PostgreSQL website are installed. The database is PostgreSQL 7.3 compatible.

The fundamental problem is character columns are creatable, but not
query-able.

This problem dates back to at least OTP-R9C.

=============================================================

$ erl

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 15-Nov-2005::09:58:15 ===
          supervisor: {local,sasl_safe_sup}
             started: [{pid,<0.32.0>},
                       {name,alarm_handler},
                       {mfa,{alarm_handler,start_link,[]}},
                       {restart_type,permanent},
                       {shutdown,2000},
                       {child_type,worker}]

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 15-Nov-2005::09:58:15 ===
          supervisor: {local,sasl_safe_sup}
             started: [{pid,<0.33.0>},
                       {name,overload},
                       {mfa,{overload,start_link,[]}},
                       {restart_type,permanent},
                       {shutdown,2000},
                       {child_type,worker}]

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 15-Nov-2005::09:58:15 ===
          supervisor: {local,sasl_sup}
             started: [{pid,<0.31.0>},
                       {name,sasl_safe_sup},
                       {mfa,{supervisor,
                                start_link,
                                [{local,sasl_safe_sup},sasl,safe]}},
                       {restart_type,permanent},
                       {shutdown,infinity},
                       {child_type,supervisor}]

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 15-Nov-2005::09:58:15 ===
          supervisor: {local,sasl_sup}
             started: [{pid,<0.34.0>},
                       {name,release_handler},
                       {mfa,{release_handler,start_link,[]}},
                       {restart_type,permanent},
                       {shutdown,2000},
                       {child_type,worker}]
Eshell V5.4.8  (abort with ^G)

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 15-Nov-2005::09:58:16 ===
         application: sasl
          started_at: nonode@REDACTED
1> {ok, Ref} = odbc:connect("DSN=PostgreSQL",[]).

=PROGRESS REPORT==== 15-Nov-2005::09:58:34 ===
         application: odbc
          started_at: nonode@REDACTED

=INFO REPORT==== 15-Nov-2005::09:58:34 ===
The odbc application was not started. Has now been started as a temporary
application. {ok,<0.45.0>}
2> odbc:sql_query(Ref,"create table test (varchar char 
2> varying(40),char_array char(40),int4 int4)").
{updated,0}
3> odbc:describe_table(Ref,"test").
{ok,[{"varchar",'ODBC_UNSUPPORTED_TYPE'},
     {"char_array",'ODBC_UNSUPPORTED_TYPE'},
     {"int4",sql_integer}]}
4>

=============================================================

Using other means, the database table 'test' has been inspected and shows
the correct character column types after creation. The odbc drivers or the
erlang code (not certain which) appear to have an asymmetric type
characteric.

Does anyone out there have a insight into the problem?

Charles F. Schatz