Re: Use of BITS construct in table indices

>>>>> Michael Kirkham writes:

Michael> RFC 2578 is a bit vague on the legality and implications of
Michael> using objects of type 'BITS' as an INDEX.  It's not
Michael> explicitly forbidden, and seems to be legal given that it is
Michael> otherwise indistinguishable from an OCTET STRING.  If it's
Michael> legal, then, for purposes of encoding the instance identifier
Michael> for a columnar object, is it considered a fixed-length or a
Michael> variable-length OCTET STRING (since new bits can be added
Michael> over time)?

RFC 2578 section 7.7 page 28:

   Since a single value of a Counter has (in general) no information
   content (see section 7.1.6 and 7.1.10), objects defined using the
   syntax, Counter32 or Counter64, must not be specified in an INDEX
   clause. If an object defined using the BITS construct is used in an
   INDEX clause, it is considered a variable-length string.

I think the last sentence provides a clear answer to your question.

/js

-- 
Juergen Schoenwaelder    <http://www.informatik.uni-osnabrueck.de/schoenw/>