"Dann Corbit" <DCorbit@connx.com> writes:
> For the disk case, why not have the start of the record contain an array
> of offsets to the start of the data for each column? It would only be
> necessary to have a list for variable fields.
No, you'd need an entry for *every* column (or at least, every one to
the right of the first variable-width column or NULL). That's a lot of
overhead, especially in comparison to datatypes like bool or int4 ...
regards, tom lane