[Fwd: typlen field in the pg_type table]

Forgot to mention that I am working with Version 7.4.3.

Paul Tilles wrote:

> For each table in my database, I am trying to extract the column name,
> column type and column length from the system catalog tables. I am able
> to get the column name from the pg_attribute table and the column type
> from the pg_type table. However, I am having a problem extracting the
> length of character columns from the typlen field of the pg_type table.
>
> For example, I have a column defined as a char(20). The column type is
> set to "bpchar" but the typlen value for this column is -1. The
> documentation says that a value of -1 indicates "... has a length
> word". Can I extract the length of the field (in this case 20) from any
> field in the system catalog tables?
>
> In the documentation (Section 43.29) for the typlen field, it says "...
> for a variable-length type, typlen is negative". In Section 10.4, Item
> 3 says "... fixed-length type(e.g., char ...". All of the char columns
> in my database have typlen = -1. IS A CHAR FIELD CONSIDERED A
> FIXED-LENGTH OR VARIABLE-LENGTH TYPE BY POSTGRESQL?
>
> Paul Tilles