Most SAS names can be up to 32 characters long. The Informix interface supports table names and column names that contain up to 32 characters. If DBMS column names are longer than 32 characters, they are truncated to 32 characters. If truncating a column name would result in identical names, SAS generates a unique name by replacing the last character with a number. DBMS table names must be 32 characters or less. SAS does not truncate a longer name. If you already have a table name that is greater than 32 characters, it is recommended that you create a table view.
For general information, see SAS Names and Support for DBMS Names.
The PRESERVE_TAB_NAMES= and PRESERVE_COL_NAMES= options determine how this interface handles case sensitivity, spaces, and special characters. (For information about these options, see LIBNAME Statement for Relational Databases.) Informix is not case sensitive, so all names default to lowercase.
Informix objects include tables and columns. They follow these naming conventions.
Because several problems were found in the Informix ODBC driver that result from using uppercase or mixed case, Informix encourages users to use lowercase for table and column names. Informix currently has no schedule for fixing these known problems.