1. A method of making data available to an application program, the method comprising: allocating by the application program a first memory portion of a first size; fetching at least a first portion of an item from a database into said first memory portion, wherein said item may have an item size larger than said first size; and if said item size is larger than said first size, setting a truncation warning; allocating by the application program a second memory portion of a second size; repeating fetching a second portion of the item by a number of fetches each having the second size until all of said item has been fetched, wherein the number of fetches and the second size are optimized based on storage space in response to the truncation warning.