Re: charin(), text_char() should return something else for empty input

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: pgsql-hackers(at)postgreSQL(dot)org
Subject: Re: charin(), text_char() should return something else for empty input
Date: 2001-05-28 18:37:32
Message-ID: 13894.991075052@sss.pgh.pa.us
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I wrote:
> I propose that both of these operations should return a space character
> for an empty input string. This is by analogy to space-padding as you'd
> get with char(1). Any objections?

An alternative approach is to make charin and text_char map empty
strings to the null character (\0), and conversely make charout and
char_text map the null character to empty strings. charout already
acts that way, in effect, since it has to produce a null-terminated
C string. This way would have the advantage that there would still
be a reversible dump and reload representation for a "char" field
containing '\0', whereas space-padding would cause such a field to
become ' ' after reload. But it's a little strange if you think that
"char" ought to behave the same as char(1).

Comments?

regards, tom lane

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