diff --git a/src/extlib/ib_udf.sql b/src/extlib/ib_udf.sql
index 872bff428f..174afea74f 100644
--- a/src/extlib/ib_udf.sql
+++ b/src/extlib/ib_udf.sql
@@ -15,10 +15,12 @@
  *
  * All Rights Reserved.
  * Contributor(s): ______________________________________.
- * $Id: ib_udf.sql,v 1.2 2001-12-24 02:50:48 tamlin Exp $
+ * $Id: ib_udf.sql,v 1.3 2002-06-29 16:38:29 skywalker Exp $
  * Revision 1.2  2000/11/28 06:47:52  fsg
  * Changed declaration of ascii_char in ib_udf.sql
  * to get correct result as proposed by Claudio Valderrama
+ * 2001.5.19 Claudio Valderrama, add the declaration of alternative
+ * substrlen function to handle string,start,length instead.
  *
  */
 /*****************************************
@@ -540,6 +542,9 @@ DECLARE EXTERNAL FUNCTION sqrt
  *	rather, it can use as long as 32767 
  * 	characters which is the limit on an 
  *	INTERBASE character string.
+ *      Change by Claudio Valderrama: when n>length(s),
+ *      the result will be the original string instead
+ *      of NULL as it was originally designed.
  *
  *****************************************/
 DECLARE EXTERNAL FUNCTION substr 
@@ -547,6 +552,28 @@ DECLARE EXTERNAL FUNCTION substr
 	RETURNS CSTRING(80) FREE_IT
 	ENTRY_POINT 'IB_UDF_substr' MODULE_NAME 'ib_udf';
 
+/*****************************************
+ *
+ *	s u b s t r l e n
+ *
+ *****************************************
+ *
+ * Functional description:
+ *	substr(s,i,l) returns the substring 
+ *	of s which starts at position i and
+ *	ends at position i+l-1, being l the length.
+ *	Note: This function is NOT limited to
+ *	receiving and returning only 80 characters,
+ *	rather, it can use as long as 32767 
+ * 	characters which is the limit on an 
+ *	INTERBASE character string.
+ *
+ *****************************************/
+DECLARE EXTERNAL FUNCTION substrlen 
+	CSTRING(80), SMALLINT, SMALLINT
+	RETURNS CSTRING(80) FREE_IT
+	ENTRY_POINT 'IB_UDF_substrlen' MODULE_NAME 'ib_udf';
+
 /*****************************************
  *
  *	s t r l e n