Re: OCTET_LENGTH is wrong

> Tom Lane writes:
> 
> > What's bothering me right now is the difference between client and
> > server encodings.  It seems that the only plausible use for
> > octet_length is to do memory allocation on the client side, and for
> > that purpose the length ought to be measured in the client encoding.
> 
> OCTET_LENGTH returns the size of its argument, not the size of some
> possible future shape of that argument.  There is absolutely no guarantee
> that the string that is processed by OCTET_LENGTH will ever reach any kind
> of client.  There are procedural languages, for instance, or CREATE TABLE
> AS.

Yes, agreed.  I argued that server-side octet_length would be valuable
for server-side functions.  However, others felt client-side was more
important.

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