Re: 'a' == 'a ' (Was: RE: [pgsql-advocacy] Oracle buysInnobase)

Richard Huxton wrote:
> Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>
>> I can see plenty of harm and absolutely no return. We are talking about
>> blank padding before comparison. Do you really want 'Danniel '
>> considered distinct from 'Danniel ' in a comparison? In real life,
>> what does that buy you?
>
>
> 100% YES!
>
> If two values are the same, then any function on those two values should
> return the same result. Otherwise what does "equals" mean? At the very
> least length() is broken by your argument.

I agree completely. I would much rather be precise than intuitive. And,
I have done applications where the padding length was important,
especially when working with remote batch processing in the credit
industries and the like. Writing queries to create and process
fixed-width batch files is much easier if you can rely on these kinds of
behaviors.

>
> Here it's CHAR that's broken IMHO - spawn of some punch-card spawned
> data processing rules of the 70s.
> --
> Richard Huxton
> Archonet Ltd
>
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