BUG #19474: LIKE with nondeterministic collations mis-handle literal backslashes in patterns containing escape
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From: PG Bug reporting form <noreply@postgresql.org>
To: pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
Cc: zxwsbg12138@gmail.com
Date: 2026-05-09T02:22:23Z
Lists: pgsql-bugs
The following bug has been logged on the website:
Bug reference: 19474
Logged by: Bowen Shi
Email address: zxwsbg12138@gmail.com
PostgreSQL version: 18.3
Operating system: centos
Description:
After commit 85b7efa1cdd63c2fe2b70b725b8285743ee5787f ("Support LIKE with
nondeterministic collations"), LIKE on a nondeterministic collation can
return an incorrect result when the pattern contains a literal backslash.
The problem appears to be in MatchText() in
src/backend/utils/adt/like_match.c. In the nondeterministic-collation path,
when a pattern substring contains escape processing, the code builds an
unescaped copy of the substring. In that logic, a backslash that should
remain as a literal character can be dropped, so the substring compared by
pg_strncoll() is not the same as the original SQL pattern semantics.
As a result, a LIKE pattern that should match a string containing a literal
backslash can incorrectly return false.
SQL reproduction:
CREATE COLLATION ignore_accents (
provider = icu,
locale = 'und-u-ks-level1',
deterministic = false
);
SELECT 'back\slash' COLLATE ignore_accents LIKE 'back\slash%' ESCAPE '#';
Expected result:
t
Actual result:
f
The same pattern works as expected without the nondeterministic collation
semantics.
A table-based reproduction:
CREATE COLLATION ignore_accents (
provider = icu,
locale = 'und-u-ks-level1',
deterministic = false
);
CREATE TABLE like_test (val text);
INSERT INTO like_test VALUES ('back\slash');
SELECT val
FROM like_test
WHERE val COLLATE ignore_accents LIKE 'back\slash%' ESCAPE '#';
Expected result:
one row: back\slash
Actual result:
zero rows
This seems to be caused by the unescape logic in like_match.c for
nondeterministic collations, where a pattern fragment containing backslashes
is copied incorrectly before calling pg_strncoll().
Commits
Same data as JSON:
GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits
the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources.
API reference →
-
Support LIKE with nondeterministic collations
- 85b7efa1cdd6 18.0 cited