Re: Difference between varchar and text?

On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 7:24 PM, Craig Ringer <craig(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:

> On 11/19/2012 12:57 AM, Vick Khera wrote:
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 2:29 AM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>
>> I'd generally recommend using "text" if you don't have any interest in
>> enforcing a specific length limit.
>>
>
> Will there be any table re-writing if I do an alter to change the column
> type from varchar(N) to text? I have some really old (from 2000 and 2001)
> schemas that have a metric boatload of data in them, and I'd like to remove
> the old artificial limit on them.
>
> That depends on the PostgreSQL version. Some changes were made to improve
> that recently; from memory, it used to require rewriting, so people would
> sometimes work around it with (dodgy and unsafe) hacks directly to the
> system catalogs. I'm not sure if "recently" is 9.2 or 9.3.
>
>
I'm looking at 9.0 in production right now.. Perhaps I will just use this
as an opportunity to upgrade to 9.2 and slony 2.1. :)