Re: PSql won't Let me Set Varchar Column to 'true' - Mailing list pgsql-general

On Fri, Aug 27, 2004 at 04:58:08PM -0700, Hunter Hillegas wrote:
> I have two varchars on my table...
>
> I tried to run the following:
>
> VMGEngine=# update user_account set editor_status = 'true' and
> administrator_status = 'true' where rec_num = 20;
> ERROR:  column "editor_status" is of type character varying but expression
> is of type boolean
>
> I was expecting the single quotes to tell psql to treat the data as a
> string, not a constant boolean value.

You're mistaken about the syntax of UPDATE. Assignments should be separated
by commas not by the word 'and', which is a 2-argument operator giving a
boolean result. You want:

update user_account
set editor_status = 'true', administrator_status = 'true'
where rec_num = 20;


Richard