Remove arithmetic operators on the 1-byte-char datatype, as per proposals

made several times in the past.  Add coercion functions between "char"
and integer so that a workaround is possible if needed.

Initdb forced.

1 files changed, 21 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
index 20ea24d3f0f..66ae275c338 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <!--
-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.299 2004/10/04 14:42:46 tgl Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.300 2004/10/04 22:49:47 tgl Exp $
 -->
 
 <appendix id="release">
@@ -265,6 +265,13 @@ $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.299 2004/10/04 14:42:46 tgl Exp
 
      <listitem>
       <para>
+       The arithmetic operators associated with the <quote>char</> data type
+       have been removed.
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
        The server now warns of empty strings passed to
        <type>oid</type>/<type>float4</type>/<type>float8</type> data
        types. In the next major release, doing this will generate an
@@ -1241,6 +1248,19 @@ $PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/release.sgml,v 1.299 2004/10/04 14:42:46 tgl Exp
       </para>
      </listitem>
 
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
+       The arithmetic operators associated with the <quote>char</> data type
+       have been removed.
+      </para>
+      <para>
+       Formerly, the parser would select these operators in many situations
+       where an <quote>unable to select an operator</> error would be more
+       appropriate, such as <literal>null * null</>.  If you actually want
+       to do arithmetic on a <quote>char</> column, you can cast it to integer.
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+
     <listitem>
       <para>
        Syntax checking of array input values considerably tightened up (Joe)