storing "small binary objects"

hi,

I am relatively new to postgresql. Sorry if this is a rather naive
question.

I am trying to store a fixed sized c++ class into the database and
retreive it. What is the simplest (dirtiest?!) way to do it? I couldnt
find any example on the web or in the pgsql/src directories that I could
get to work.

Here is what i did.

I tried defining a column as char(sizeof class) using...
create table firstTable(id integer,className char(sizeofclass));


Then in my c++ program, I used....

char* someVariable=(char*)(&classInstance)
//character handle to the class

exec sql insert into firstTable(id,className)
 values(:temp,:someVariable);
//save "someVariable" 'asis' into the column

Then I tried reading the value back in...

 someVariable=(char*)malloc(sizeof(class));
 memset(someVariable,0,sizeof(class));
 exec sql select id, className
    into :id,:someVariable
    from firstTable
    where id = 5;
 //read "someVariable" back in

While I got the value of id (and there is definitely a valid record), the
"someVariable" memory location is blank. What am I doing wrong?

In addition to examples available with the distribution, pointers to some
more sample code would help.

Thanks,
Swami.