Re: "_" in a serach pattern

Hi, Jessica,
> 1. How do I get rid of the nonstandard warning, but still using the
> index search?
You have two options.

- Turn off the warnings in the postgresql.conf file. Use this with
caution (or don't use it at all) as it does pose a potential threat for
SQL injections if other options aren't properly set. Read up at
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/runtime-config-compatible.html
for more detail.
- Use escape-string formatting. This is the best practice since it is
standards-conforming and more secure. You can do it, for instance, as
    select name from table where name like 'A!_B%' escape '!';
You can escape with most characters, and it's mostly a matter of
personal preference.
>
> 2. How do I search with a wild card % in the middle of the pattern?
> Would varchar(80) or char(80) make a difference about the wild card
> search (% in the middle)?
I think that postgres is seeing the trailing whitespace on the end of
the char type and not accounting for it in the search. In this case,
varchar or text types would make a difference since they don't do
whitespace padding (unless you force it in). You should remember that if
you plan on converting the data type, trim the extraneous whitespace
first. However, I would switch to varchar/text so it saves some space
and saves you these headaches, unless there's an absolute need for
fixed-length char fields. I use text almost exclusively for string data
since it's arbitrary-length, I almost never have to worry about overflow
or later administration.

If you don't want to convert data, you can use the rtrim() function
(i.e. "select rtrim(name) from ...").

Peter

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