Re: char columns, space padding, and the "like" operator

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us]
>
>"Haszlakiewicz, Eric" <EHASZLA(at)transunion(dot)com> writes:
>> Once I realized that the value in the table actually got extended to
>> 'SOMEVALUE ', things started making sense, since the equivalent quick
>> select is actually:
>> select 'SOMEVALUE ' like 'SOME% %';
>
>> Unfortunately, my app has a whole bunch of places where it uses
>> constructs like this against char columns. Other databases (such as
>> Informix), automatically strip spaces off char column so queries like
>> the above behave in a more intuitive fashion.
>
>Cast the char(n) column to text or varchar, and it should work more
>like you're expecting.

Yeah, I figured that much. I was hoping for a connection-wide or
database-wide setting, so I wouldn't have to go change all my SQL
statements.

eric