diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml index 573fe75f3628f8eb89669c147ae1b9a33c5f8c2b..d805439d830f69bb6fe2045b2f99c612392301fd 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ <!-- -$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml,v 1.94 2002/07/16 03:30:26 momjian Exp $ +$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml,v 1.95 2002/07/16 04:45:59 momjian Exp $ --> <chapter id="datatype"> @@ -843,19 +843,20 @@ CREATE TABLE <replaceable class="parameter">tablename</replaceable> (<replaceabl </para> <para> - The storage requirement for data of these types is 4 bytes plus - the actual string, and in case of <type>character</type> plus the - padding. Long strings will be compressed by the system - automatically, so the physical requirement on disk may be less. - In any case, the longest possible character string - that can be stored is about 1 GB. (The maximum value that will be - allowed for <replaceable>n</> in the data type declaration is - less than that. It wouldn't be very useful to change - this because with multibyte character encodings the number of - characters and bytes can be quite different anyway. If you desire - to store long strings with no specific upper limit, use <type>text</type> - or <type>character varying</type> without a length specifier, - rather than making up an arbitrary length limit.) + The storage requirement for data of these types is 4 bytes plus the + actual string, and in case of <type>character</type> plus the + padding. Long strings are compressed by the system automatically, so + the physical requirement on disk may be less. Long values are also + stored in background tables so they don't interfere with rapid + access to the shorter column values. In any case, the longest + possible character string that can be stored is about 1 GB. (The + maximum value that will be allowed for <replaceable>n</> in the data + type declaration is less than that. It wouldn't be very useful to + change this because with multibyte character encodings the number of + characters and bytes can be quite different anyway. If you desire to + store long strings with no specific upper limit, use + <type>text</type> or <type>character varying</type> without a length + specifier, rather than making up an arbitrary length limit.) </para> <tip>