Re: ERROR: row is too big: size 8176, maximum size 8160

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 12:55 AM, Albe Laurenz <laurenz(dot)albe(at)wien(dot)gv(dot)at> wrote:
> Andreas Kretschmer wrote:
>> > I am using postgresql-8.3.7 and have recently got this error:
>> >
>> > org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: row is too big: size 8168,
>> > maximum size 8160
>>
>> Please show us your table definition.
>>
>> Wild guess: you have many, many columns, non-text (INT or something
>> else), and such a row is bigger than 8 KByte, PG can't use TOAST.
>>
>> I think, you should re-design your table, read about normalisation.
>
> Or maybe a large column has been modified by
> ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... SET STORAGE PLAIN
>
> In any case, if you cannot figure out what causes your row to be
> so big, tell us the statements used to create the table and give us
> an idea of what you insert (the whole row is probably too much spam).

I thought even then if the backend can't fit it all in 8k it puts text
out of line.