Re: List of encodings

My understanding is that if I have 3 "BIG5" encodings, only one can be
a default.

And if you want you can choose the other 2, but selecting "BIG5" will
make only one
to be selected by default.
That is why it is called "default" ;-)

Thank you.

On Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 7:42 PM Igor Korot <ikorot01(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> Hi, ALL,
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 19, 2026 at 8:32 PM Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Apr 19, 2026 at 9:13 PM Igor Korot <ikorot01(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> >>
> >> [snip]
> >> >
> >> > In your setup all the installed encoding conversion functions are also
> >> > the default for those conversions. It is possible to create/install a
> >> > conversion function that is not the default.
> >>
> >> So, let's say I chose "BIG5"".
> >>
> >> As stated the table contains:
> >>
> >> big5_to_utf8 | BIG5 | t
> >> big5_to_euc_tw | BIG5 | t
> >> big5_to_mic | BIG5 | t
> >>
> >> Since all 3 are default character sets, which one would be chosen?
> >> (in the context of CREATE DATABASE)
> >
> >
> > Does CREATE DATABASE convert text? (I think you might be misunderstanding the purpose of the pg_conversion table.)
>
> No it does not.
>
> But it has an option that can be chosen and supplied to the command...
>
> So when I write "CREATE DATABASE mydb ECODING = BIG5", what will happen?
>
> Moreover, I'm curious - if I chose "BIG5", there are only number of
> available collate/ctype pairs.
> How do I choose which one to present to the user.
> Because there is not one default "BIG5" - there are 3 default "BIG5"s.
>
> Thank you.
>
> >
> > Wouldn't it only convert text when a client is inserting text of encoding X into a table with encoding Y?
> >
> > ISTM that pg_conversion says whether PG knows how to convert from X to Y, not the encoding scheme you defined when creating the db.
> >
> > --
> > Death to <Redacted>, and butter sauce.
> > Don't boil me, I'm still alive.
> > <Redacted> lobster!