DB2 Clob Data Memory Limit Reached PHP ODBC

[elispop122003]

When trying to load the data from a clob data type I get the following error:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 1047096368 bytes)

What I don't understand is why so much memory is being used. This is a test record that contains only 50 characters yet it is somehow trying to allocate several gigabytes of data.

I'm running this as a php application connecting to a db2 9.7 database. I am very new working with db2. My experience has been mainly with mysql. Here is the code that is giving the error:

$sql = "SELECT * FROM callresp where crprojid = 204547";
$r = odbc_exec($conn, $sql);
if(!$r){exit("Error in SQL");}
while(odbc_fetch_row($r))
    {   
        $desc = odbc_result($r, 'crDesc');
        $assigned = odbc_result($r, 'crAssigned');
        $problem = odbc_result($r, 'crProblem');
        $solution = odbc_result($r, 'crSolution');
    }
 

Everything else on this connection works. If I comment out the clob data variables the page runs like it should only with out that data. I have been searching all day and its seems that almost any mention of clobs has been in relation to oracle. If anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

[elispop122003]

I want to also say that I have tried to achieve this by:

substr(crDesc, 1, length(crDes));
 

I have tried using length and someone else suggested I use strlen() but that throws a db2 error.