CHAR(20) columns in 8.4 database may contains spaces and - signs like
13-333-333 12 3-44 33 33 333 12345
User enters code to search without spaces and - signs, like 12344 How to search for product code ignoring spaces and - signs?
For example searching for code 12344 should return 12 3-44 as matching item.
Check out http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/interactive/functions-string.html and try using these functions to modify the comparison in the WHERE portion of a query. For example, if the CHAR(20) column that you mentioned is called 'sku' and the user enters a value like '12345'
select * from table where replace(replace(sku, ' ', ''), '-', '') = '12344'