Support for character-length semantics for CHAR and VARCHAR data types   When you specify a CHAR or VARCHAR column, you can now use character-length semantics. Character-length semantics allow you to express the length in characters, instead of bytes. See CHAR data type and VARCHAR data type.

Support for bit array data types   SQL Anywhere now supports the VARBIT and LONG VARBIT data types. These data types are used to store bit arrays. See Bit array data types.

The following functions have been added for use with bit array data types:

• BIT_LENGTH function [Bit array]
• BIT_SUBSTR function [Bit array]
• BIT_AND function [Aggregate]
• BIT_OR function [Aggregate]
• BIT_XOR function [Aggregate]
• COUNT_SET_BITS function [Bit array]
• GET_BIT function [Bit array]
• SET_BIT function [Bit array]
• SET_BITS function [Aggregate]