BLOB and Text data

Hi, I have a question for all you database experts. There is a validator in the xml schema parser. ATM it uses the following regexp to check if the content of a blob field is valid: if (!preg_match('/^([0-9a-f]{2})*$/i', $field_value)) { return $this->raiseError($xp, '"'.$field_value.'" is not of type "'.$field_def['type'].'"'); } Atleast MySQL is not that strict about data stored in a blob field, since it also allows normal Textdata to be stored in a blob field. Now the question: How do other RDBMS handle this? Should I even care? Should I automatically convert Textdata to binary data and issue a warning? Etc. Regards, Lukas Smith smith@dybnet.de _______________________________ DybNet Internet Solutions GbR Reuchlinstr. 10-11 Gebäude 4 1.OG Raum 6 (4.1.6) 10553 Berlin Germany Tel. : +49 30 83 22 50 00 Fax : +49 30 83 22 50 07 www.dybnet.de info@dybnet.de