The Result Buffer (Requesting Information About an Open Blob)
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The result buffer is a byte vector in which InterBase returns a series of clusters of information, one per item requested. Each cluster consists of three parts:
- A one-byte item type. Each is the same as one of the item types in the item-list buffer.
- A two-byte number specifying the number of bytes that follow in the remainder of the cluster.
- A value, stored in a variable number of bytes, whose interpretation depends on the item type.
A calling program is responsible for interpreting the contents of the result buffer and for deciphering each cluster as appropriate.
The clusters returned to the result buffer are not aligned. Furthermore, all numbers are represented in a generic format, with the least significant byte first, and the most significant byte last. Signed numbers have the sign in the last byte. Convert the numbers to a data type native to your system, if necessary, before interpreting them. The API call, isc_portable_integer(), can be used to perform the conversion.