Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> writes:
> I do recall someone telling me that text mode transfer could actually be
> faster than binary, somewhat to their (and my) surprise.
Seems a bit improbable --- what was their test case?
The only such situation that comes to mind is that some values are
smaller as text than binary (eg "2" is shorter as text than as any
binary numeric format), so in a situation where number of bytes sent
dominates all other costs, text would win. But of course there are also
many values that're smaller in binary format, so I'd think this would
only happen in restricted test cases.
regards, tom lane