Re: 'text' is gone?

Adrian Klaver <aklaver(at)comcast(dot)net> writes:
> On Tuesday 10 February 2009 6:39:27 pm johnf wrote:
>> Looks like microsoft is going to drop the data type "text" in the near
>> future. VarChar(max) will be taking it's place. Does Postgres have some
>> like varChar(max)?

> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/datatype-character.html
> varchar()

I don't think I believe the OP's premise anyway. The concept that every
string column has to have a specific hard-coded maximum length is an
evil hangover from the days of punched cards. It seems very unlikely
that M$, who are not exactly known for slavish adherence to standards to
begin with, would suddenly drop a more flexible datatype and make all
their customers use a less flexible one.

I'd be *much* less surprised to see 'text' or some moral equivalent of
it (such as our varchar-without-length) show up in a future SQL spec
than to see any major implementation remove it.

regards, tom lane