Lew <noone(at)lewscanon(dot)com> wrote:
> I'm a little confused. When you say "char" is a byte long, are
> you referring to the SQL type or the Java type? I'm used to
> seeing the Java type expressed in lower case and the SQL type in
> upper case, so please pardon my confusion.
PostgreSQL supports the standard CHAR(n) including the special case
of CHAR to mean one character, but also supports a type of "char"
(notice the lower-case letters and the quotes), which is distinct,
and is a one-byte type. "char" is not intended to be used by
application code, generally. It's a micro-optimization used for
system tables, and thus not very well documented. Use at your own
risk. Or use CHAR or VARCHAR (without quotes).
-Kevin