The suppress option refers to abbreviating some of data in a table so that the data can be stored in a smaller space than its actual size. When the suppress option is specified, the system stores any decimal data in the table by taking only the significant digits (ignoring leading zeros) and a value indicating the actual data size. Because the suppress option stores data by truncating it to less than its actual size, less disk space is used and I/O time for text and other search operations is reduced.

The suppress option is specified with the SUPPRESS option in the CREATE TABLE. For details about the suppress option, see the HiRDB Version 8 Installation and Design Guide.