Re: Significant trailing spaces

Steve Tucknott <steve(at)retsol(dot)co(dot)uk> writes:
> I still seem to get the same problem - putting a CHAR(250) variable
> (with trailing spaces) into a VARCHAR(100) gives me a VARCHAR with a
> length 100 - ie padded with spaces. Is this still correct?

This is per SQL specification. SQL92 section 9.2 "Store assignment"
defines assignment to a varchar thusly:

[ T is the target variable, V is the value being assigned ]

d) If the data type of T is variable-length character string
and the length in characters M of V is not greater than the
maximum length in characters of T, then the value of T is set
to V and the length in characters of T is set to M.

e) If the data type of T is variable-length character string and
the length in characters M of V is greater than the maximum
length in characters L of T, then,

Case:

i) If the rightmost M-L characters of V are all <space>s, then
the value of T is set to the first L characters of V and
the length in characters of T is set to L.

ii) If one or more of the rightmost M-L characters of V are
not <space>s, then an exception condition is raised: data
exception-string data, right truncation.

If you don't want the spaces, consider using the trim() or rtrim()
function.

regards, tom lane