Re: Re: charin(), text_char() should return something else for empty input

Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> writes:
> In general, I don't see a point in accepting a zero byte in character
> strings.  If you want to store binary data there are binary data types (or
> effort could be invested in them).

If we were starting in a green field then I'd think it worthwhile to
maintain null-byte-cleanness for the textual datatypes.  At this point,
though, the amount of pain involved seems to vastly outweigh the value.
The major problem is that I/O conventions not based on null-terminated
strings would break all existing user-defined datatypes.  (Changing our
own code is one thing, breaking users' code is something else.)  There
are minor-by-comparison problems like not being able to use strcoll()
for locale-sensitive comparisons anymore...

I agree with Peter that spending some extra effort on bytea and/or
similar types is probably a more profitable answer.
        regards, tom lane