Stephan Szabo <sszabo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, Tom Lane wrote: >> Also, section 6.10 <cast specification> defines an explicit cast to >> a fixed-length string type as truncating or padding to the target >> length (LTD): > Are you sure that's the correct section to be using? Isn't that 6.10 > General Rules 5c which is if the source type is a fixed or variable > length character string? Wouldn't the correct place for an int->char > conversion be 5a or am I misreading it? Hm, good point, so really we ought to have a separate casting path for numeric types to char(n). However, this section still doesn't offer any support for the OP's desire to auto-size the result; it says that you get an error if the result doesn't fit in the declared length: > iv) Otherwise, an exception condition is raised: data exception- > string data, right truncation. regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly