diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml
index 7bbe676a9a1..bcfe1690588 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 <!--
-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml,v 1.140 2004/01/20 22:46:06 tgl Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/datatype.sgml,v 1.141 2004/02/01 06:27:48 tgl Exp $
 -->
 
  <chapter id="datatype">
@@ -901,6 +901,18 @@ CREATE TABLE <replaceable class="parameter">tablename</replaceable> (
     management systems have it as well.
    </para>
 
+   <para>
+    Values of type <type>character</type> are physically padded
+    with spaces to the specified width <replaceable>n</>, and are
+    stored and displayed that way.  However, the padding spaces are
+    treated as semantically insignificant.  Trailing spaces are
+    disregarded when comparing two values of type <type>character</type>,
+    and they will be removed when converting a <type>character</type> value
+    to one of the other string types.  Note that trailing spaces
+    <emphasis>are</> semantically significant in
+    <type>character varying</type> and <type>text</type> values.
+   </para>
+
    <para>
     The storage requirement for data of these types is 4 bytes plus the
     actual string, and in case of <type>character</type> plus the
@@ -922,7 +934,11 @@ CREATE TABLE <replaceable class="parameter">tablename</replaceable> (
     <para>
      There are no performance differences between these three types,
      apart from the increased storage size when using the blank-padded
-     type.
+     type.  While <type>character(<replaceable>n</>)</type> has performance
+     advantages in some other database systems, it has no such advantages in
+     <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.  In most situations
+     <type>text</type> or <type>character varying</type> should be used
+     instead.
     </para>
    </tip>
 
diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/varchar.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/varchar.c
index 2c10ca1485a..6b26a91192c 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/varchar.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/varchar.c
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
  *
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/utils/adt/varchar.c,v 1.103 2003/11/29 19:51:59 pgsql Exp $
+ *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/utils/adt/varchar.c,v 1.104 2004/02/01 06:27:48 tgl Exp $
  *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -510,14 +510,16 @@ Datum
 bpcharlen(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 {
 	BpChar	   *arg = PG_GETARG_BPCHAR_P(0);
+	int			len;
 
-	/* optimization for single byte encoding */
-	if (pg_database_encoding_max_length() <= 1)
-		PG_RETURN_INT32(VARSIZE(arg) - VARHDRSZ);
+	/* get number of bytes, ignoring trailing spaces */
+	len = bcTruelen(arg);
+	
+	/* in multibyte encoding, convert to number of characters */
+	if (pg_database_encoding_max_length() != 1)
+		len = pg_mbstrlen_with_len(VARDATA(arg), len);
 
-	PG_RETURN_INT32(
-			  pg_mbstrlen_with_len(VARDATA(arg), VARSIZE(arg) - VARHDRSZ)
-		);
+	PG_RETURN_INT32(len);
 }
 
 Datum