This method populates the provided character array with up to the maximum number of characters, from the specified offset (in characters) of the column.

Declaration

// C#
public override long GetChars(int index, long fieldOffset, char[] buffer,
    int bufferOffset, int length);

Parameters

• index

  The zero based column index.

• fieldOffset

  The index within the column from which to begin reading (in characters).

• buffer

  The character array that the data is read into.

• bufferOffset

  The index within the buffer to begin reading data into (in characters).

• length

  The maximum number of characters to read (in characters).

Return Value

The number of characters read.

Implements

IDataRecord

Exceptions

InvalidOperationException - The connection is closed, the reader is closed, Read() has not been called, or all rows have been read.

IndexOutOfRangeException - The column index is invalid.

InvalidCastException - The accessor method is invalid for this column type or the column value is NULL.

Remarks

This method returns the number of characters read into the buffer. This may be less than the actual length of the field, if the method has been called previously for the same column.

If a null reference is passed for buffer, the length of the field in characters is returned.

IsDBNull should be called to check for NULL values before calling this method.