>>>>> According to the manuals, Postgres has smallint (2 byte), integer (4 >>>>> bytes) and bigint (8 bytes).. I use a lot of structures with "bytes" >>>>> in my code and it's kinda annoying to cast DB output from Int16 to >>>>> Byte every time, especially since there's no explicit cast in .NET and >>>>> you have to use System.Convert(). >>>>> >>>>> Is there a work-around, or do people just cast or use Int16 in their >>>>> data structures? Just wondering.. I know on modern computers it >>>>> probably doesn't make any difference anyway.. >>>> >>>> >>>> Is this just about programmer convenience or is it about space efficiency >>>> in >>>> the database? BYTEA might help you. Or try declaring a DOMAIN over >>>> SMALLINT that limits allowed values to the range of a byte. -- Darren >>>> Duncan >>> >>> >>> This is purely programmer convenience. >>> >>> Basically, I want Npgsql to marshal the value as a .NET Byte type, if >>> I can find a way to do that I'm happy. Perhaps it's more of a Npgsql >>> question, though I'm curious as to why Postgres doesn't have an >>> intrinsic tinyint or byte type. >> >> >> Maybe Postgres doesn't need a Byte type predefined because it gives you the >> means to define the type yourself, such as using DOMAIN. >> >> Generally speaking, I believe it is more important for a type system to >> provide the means for arbitrary user-defined types which can be used in all >> the places as built-in-defined types, than to have large numbers of >> built-in-defined types. > > Precisely. postgresql's extensable nature allows you to build your > own types as well. If it's popular enough it'll make it into contrib, > then maybe core. My guess is that there's some non-trivial cost to > maintaining each core type, and since a byte type isn't required by > the SQL spec, it would take some effort to get a standard one included > in the core. That makes sense. I guess my question is more of a NpgSql question then. Is there a way to create a custom PG type, and have npgsql serialize that type in a dataset to a .NET Byte type? I'd probably be better off posting on the npgsql mailing list, but perhaps someone here knows as well.. Mike -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
