The following encoding behavior seems strange to me (v8.1.4). I have read the docs, but I am still confused. I have a UTF8 encoded database. I can do => SELECT '\xb9'::text; But that seems to be the only way to get an invalid utf8 byte sequence into a text type. Even if I do PQexecParams and send the data as binary format (and type text), I get a conversion error. If I send the invalid character in a raw PQexec query, I assume that postgres tries to convert it to cstring first, causing the conversion error. That means it's impossible to send any character that's an invalid UTF8 sequence in a raw query (as a value, anyway), as far as I can tell. What motivates this question is that I have an application inserting these invalid characters (using them in the raw query), and I am finding it difficult to migrate to the UTF8-encoded database. It seems strange that it's possible to put invalid utf8 byte sequences in a text field, but only by using the E''-style escape sequences. The only way I have found to do it using PQexecParams with the binary data is something like: => SELECT textin(byteaout($1)); -- $1 is binary format, type bytea So, if I were to sum this up in a single question, why does cstring not accept invalid utf8 sequences? And if it doesn't, why are they allowed in any text type? Regards, Jeff Davis PS: I posted a similar question yesterday that included a lot of useless information. I'm not trying to repost, I'm trying to focus my question a little more.
