Getting lengths of variable fields

Hi folks,

I'm writing a very robust validation script in perl for database entry. One 
of the things I'd like to do is check how large a field is, and make sure 
that the entry into that field isn't too big. Problem is, for variable length 
fields, DBD::Pg returns a -1 size, using the pg_size attribute.

Is there something I am missing? Is there a way to get the size of variable 
length types using DBI/DBD::Pg, in particular, char() and varchar()?

Michelle
-- 
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Michelle Murrain, Ph.D.
President
Norwottuck Technology Resources
mpm@norwottuck.com
http://www.norwottuck.com