BUG #1171: select distinct 'value',... fails.

The following bug has been logged online:

Bug reference: 1171
Logged by: Harro Lock

Email address: harro1@dataleaf.nl

PostgreSQL version: 7.4

Operating system: Linux

Description: select distinct 'value',... fails.

Details:

'select distinct' fails when using a string value in the columnlist.

Here is a minimal query that reproduces the bug:

select distinct 'value';

This should give "value" as a result, but it produces this error-message:

ERROR: Unable to identify an ordering operator '<' for type '"unknown"'
Use an explicit ordering operator or modify the query

A work-around for this bug is to cast the string to a known type:

select distinct cast('value' as varchar);