Can someone provide a link to the Postgres 8.x documentation that provides information about Null vs. Empty String? Here is the situation: Currently, the source code performs the following SQL statement : UPDATE user_group set subversion_flags='' WHERE user_id='5818' AND group_id='438'; (This SQL statement worked in a very old version of Postgres) and pgsql 8.3.8 returned ERROR: invalid input syntax for integer: "" The table \d user_group Table "public.user_group" Column | Type | Modifiers ------------------+---------------+-------------------------------------------- --------------------- user_group_id | integer | not null default nextval(('user_group_pk_se q'::text)::regclass) user_id | integer | not null default 0 group_id | integer | not null default 0 subversion_flags | integer | not null default 0 . . I know probably the best way is to the put check in the application level (making sure that subversion_flags has a value) before the actual update SQL call; however, I really just want to port the code to work with Postgres 8.3.8 avoiding any code changes if that's possible. Is there something that I can do at the database level (like alter the table) so that I can still use the same SQL statement in the application level listed above and it wouldn't return an error? Any ideas? Thanks in advance Mary -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general