PostgreSQL Data Types - CHAR

Versions: PostgreSQL 8.x and 7.x

PostgreSQL - CHAR
Syntax	CHAR[(n)]
Data	Fixed-length character data, single-byte and multibyte character sets
Parameters	n is the maximum number of characters, optional
Range	1 ⇐ n ⇐ 1G
Default	n is 1
Padding	Right-padded with spaces to n
Trailing Spaces	Removed when the value is retrieved. Trailing spaces are insignificant in comparison.
Character Set	Database default
Error Handling	Exceeding data truncated to the maximum length if the excess characters are all spaces, otherwise an error is raised. Casting to a shorter length truncates the value without raising an error.
Storage Size	n bytes
Synonyms	CHARACTER
Standards	ANSI SQL

PostgreSQL CHAR - Equivalents in Other Databases

Database	Data Type and Conversion
Oracle	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 2000/charsize; NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 2000/charsize, Unicode - UTF-8 or UTF-16
SQL Server	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 8000; NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 4000, Unicode - UCS-2
IBM DB2	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 254; GRAPHIC(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 127, double-byte
MySQL	CHAR(n), 0 ⇐ n ⇐ 255; NCHAR(n), 0 ⇐ n ⇐ 255, Unicode - UTF-8
Sybase ASE	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ pagesize (2K, 4K, 8K or 16K); NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ pagesize; UNICHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ pagesize, Unicode
Sybase ASA	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 32767/charsize; NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 8191, Unicode - UTF-8
Informix DS	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 32767; NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 32767, database character set
Teradata	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 64000/charsize
HP Neoview	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ (32708 - size of other columns); NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ (32708 - size of other columns), Unicode - UCS-2 or ISO88591 (Latin1)
Interbase/Firebird	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 32767/charsize; NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 32767, single-byte ISO8859_1 (Latin 1)
Ingres	CHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 3200; NCHAR(n), 1 ⇐ n ⇐ 16000, Unicode - UTF-8

Related Data Types in PostgreSQL

Data Types
Variable-length character data	VARCHAR(n)	TEXT

All Data Types

Oracle

SQL Server

IBM DB2

MySQL

PostgreSQL

Sybase ASE

Sybase ASA

Informix DS

Teradata

HP Neoview

Interbase/Firebird

Ingres