"scott.marlowe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > But then this: > select 'x'||' '||'x' > should produce xx, but it produces x x.
No, because the imputed type of those literals is text. You'd have to cast the middle guy to char(n) explicitly to make its trailing spaces go away when it's reconverted to text. The real issue here is that trailing spaces in char(n) are semantically insignificant according to the SQL spec. The spec is pretty vague about which operations should actually honor that insignificance --- it's clear that comparisons should, less clear about other things. I think the 7.4 behavior is more consistent than what we had before, but I'm willing to be persuaded to change it again if someone can give an alternate definition that's more workable than this one. regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html