The following error message may be issued when you fetch data of binary large object (BLOB) and character large object (CLOB) types from a DB2 table:

ERROR: The character variable PICTURE has too long a value for the 
X library.
NOTE: The SAS System stopped processing this step because of errors.

The problem occurs when you submit code similar to the following:

In the PROC PRINT statement, x.artists contains BLOB data.

You cannot create tables based on other DB2 tables that contain BLOB or CLOB types and that have a defined length of greater than 32700. This issue occurs because the MAX_CHARVAL value for DB2 is set based on it's long VARCHAR column, which has a maximum of 32700 characters. The maximum value for MAX_CHARVAL is MACSHORT, which is 32767 characters. However, the DB2 CLOB and BLOB types permit 2 G of characters. Therefore, when the SAS Supervisor reads the DB2 MAX_CHARVAL value, it assumes the system cannot handle the length because it is 67 characters more than the maximum allowed number of characters.

Select the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.

Operating System and Release Information

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) for this issue is available at:

A fix for SAS 9.1.3 (9.1 TS1M3) with Asian Language Support (DBCS) for this issue is available at: