Expression of check constraint - Mailing list pgsql-general

Hi,

if I add the following check constraint to a table:

ALTER TABLE public.times_places

   ADD CONSTRAINT ck_tp_ratified CHECK

          (ratified IS NULL OR (ratified IN ('Y', 'N')));

It becomes the following when describing the table in psql:

Check constraints:

    "ck_tp_ratified" CHECK (ratified IS NULL OR (ratified::text = ANY (ARRAY['Y'::character varying, 'N'::character varying]::text[])))

The behavior of the check constraint is logically identical and this seems plausible to me, but I still wonder why:

1.    does the expression x in (a, b) become the expression x = any(array(a, b)?

2.    why is the array expression casted so wildly? First to character varying and then to text[]?

3.    The column ratified is of type character varying(1).  Why is it casted to text?

Dirk