Thanks Steve, Actually I do not insert text data into my numeric field. As I mentioned given create table t1 { name text, cost decimal } then I would like to insert numeric data into column "cost" because then I can later benefit from numerical operators like SUM, AVG, etc
More specifically, I am using HTML, Perl and PG. So from the HTML point of view a textfield is just some strings. So my user would enter 12345 but expressed in UTF8. Perl would get this and use DBI to insert it into PG What I am experiencing now is that DB errors that I am trying to insert an incorrect data into column "cost" which is numeric and the data is coming in from HTML in UTF8 Mybe I have to convert it to ASCII numbers in Perl before inserting them into PG Thanks Medi On Jan 13, 2008 8:51 PM, Steve Midgley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 02:22 PM 1/13/2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:21:00 -0800 > >From: "Medi Montaseri" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org > >Subject: UTF8 encoding and non-text data types > >Message-ID: > ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > >I understand PG supports UTF-8 encoding and I have sucessfully > >inserted > >Unicode text into columns. I was wondering about other data types such > >as > >numbers, decimal, dates > > > >That is, say I have a table t1 with > >create table t1 { name text, cost decimal } > >I can insert UTF8 text datatype into this table with no problem > >But if my application attempts to insert numbers encloded in UTF8, > >then I > >get wrong datatype error > > > >Is the solution for the application layer (not database) to convert > >the > >non-text UTF8 numbers to ASCII and then insert it into database ? > > > >Thanks > >Medi > > Hi Medi, > > I have only limited experience in this area, but it sounds like you > sending your numbers as strings? In your example: > > >create table t1 { name text, cost decimal }; > > insert into t1 (name, cost) values ('name1', '1'); > > I can't think of how else you're sending numeric values as UTF8? I know > that Pg will accept numbers as strings and convert internally (that has > worked for me in some object relational environments where I don't > choose to cope with data types), but I think it would be better if you > simply didn't send your numeric data in quotations, whether as UTF8 or > ASCII. If you don't have control over this layer (that quotes your > values), then I'd say converting to ASCII would solve the problem. But > better to convert to numeric and not ship quoted strings at all. > > I may be totally off-base and missing something fundamental and I'm > very open to correction (by anyone), but that's what I can see here. > > Best regards, > > Steve > >