Re: tuple too big error

On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Karl Schmid wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> when I try to insert a long string (100 kByte) into a 'text' field using the
> following command:
>
> INSERT INTO clone (clone_code1, seq)
> VALUES ('TEL1N','CCCTAAACCCTAAA...<about 100,000 characters of DNA
> sequence>'),
>
> I get the following error message:
>
> ERROR:  Tuple is too big: size 104228, max size 8140
>
> If I understand the docs correctly, there is no length restriction in text
> fields and the above instruction should work.
>
> Did I overlook something? Is it necessary to import such a long string as a
> large object?
>
> I am using PostgreSQL 7.0.3 under SuSE Linux 7.1.
>
PosrgreSQL 7.0.x has a compiletime tuplesize limit which is by default
8kb. This limitation doesn't exist in the 7.1 version, so I would suggest
getting it from ftp://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/dev/. It is still RC2, but
I think it can already be used in noncritical enviroments. Using large
objects is not a very good idea, because it is imho very cumbersome
in this case.

- Einar Karttunen