PG 7.2 varchar change

Hello all:

I am upgrading a web application from postgres 7.1.2 to 7.4.3 (too long in
coming to that point, I know).

I have sifted through the history files and identified a restricted number
of changes that potentially impact the app, a few of which I don¹t
understand.

Here¹s the currently most alarming, a change that is recorded for 7.2:

CHAR(), VARCHAR() now reject strings that are too long (Peter E)

What does this mean? Or how do I find out what it means? My understanding
was that varchar fields had no text limit. But these are written like
functions. Does this refer to coercion functions that now reject strings
that are longer than the specified size of the underlying column? What if
the column was specified as type Œtext¹? And what was the old behavior?

Thanks for any insight. This is the only change that¹s really concerning us
deeply right now.

-- sgl

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Steve Lane

Vice President
Soliant Consulting
14 North Peoria St Suite 2H
Chicago, IL 60607

voice: (312) 850-3930 email: slane(at)soliantconsulting(dot)com
fax: (312) 850-3930 web: http://www.soliantconsulting.com
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