Varchar2, is this strange or not?

The following is the test I did:

create table test (id number(1), text varchar2(10)); insert into test values (1, 'x');
insert into test values (2, 'x '); --x with a space commit;

SQL> select * from test;

       ID TEXT
--------- ----------

        1 x
        2 x

NO problem with this.

SQL> select * from test where text = 'x';

       ID TEXT
--------- ----------

        1 x

SQL> select * from test where text = 'x '; -- x with a space

       ID TEXT
--------- ----------

        2 x

SO FAR SO GOOD. SQL> select * from test where text > 'x';

no rows selected

SQL> select * from test where text < 'x';

no rows selected

SQL> DO HAVE PROBLEM WITH THIS According to my understanding, for varchar2 type, 'x ' > 'x'

I am using Oracle Lite.

Anybody can give me an explain? Thanks in advance.

This is directly from Oracle Document.

Nonpadded Comparison Semantics

Oracle compares two values character by character up to the first character that differs. The value with the greater character in that position is considered greater. If two values of different length are identical up to the end of the shorter one, the longer value is considered greater. If two values of equal length have no differing characters, then the values are considered equal. Oracle uses nonpadded comparison semantics whenever
one or both values in the comparison have the datatype VARCHAR2 or NVARCHAR2. Received on Wed Dec 22 1999 - 07:01:28 CST