<returnvalue>text</returnvalue>
       </para>
       <para>
        Converts the non-string input to text, then concatenates the two
        strings.  (The non-string input cannot be of an array type, because
        that would create ambiguity with the array <literal>||</literal>
        operators.  If you want to concatenate an array's text equivalent,
        cast it to <type>text</type> explicitly.)
       </para>
       <para>
        <literal>'Value: ' || 42</literal>
        <returnvalue>Value: 42</returnvalue>
       </para></entry>
      </row>

      <row>
       <entry role="func_table_entry"><para role="func_signature">
        <indexterm>
         <primary>btrim</primary>
        </indexterm>
        <function>btrim</function> ( <parameter>string</parameter> <type>text</type>
        <optional>, <parameter>characters</parameter> <type>text</type> </optional> )
        <returnvalue>text</returnvalue>
       </para>
       <para>
        Removes the longest string containing only characters
        in <parameter>characters</parameter> (a space by default)
        from the start and end of <parameter>string</parameter>.
       </para>
       <para>
        <literal>btrim('xyxtrimyyx', 'xyz')</literal>
        <returnvalue>trim</returnvalue>
       </para></entry>
      </row>

      <row>
       <entry role="func_table_entry"><para role="func_signature">
        <indexterm>
         <primary>normalized</primary>
        </indexterm>
        <indexterm>
         <primary>Unicode normalization</primary>
        </indexterm>
         <type>text</type> <literal>IS</literal> <optional><literal>NOT</literal></optional> <optional><parameter>form</parameter></optional> <literal>NORMALIZED</literal>
        <returnvalue>boolean</returnvalue>
       </para>
       <para>
        Checks whether the string is in the specified Unicode normalization
        form.  The optional <parameter>form</parameter> key word specifies the
        form: <literal>NFC</literal> (the default), <literal>NFD</literal>,
        <literal>NFKC</literal>, or <literal>NFKD</literal>.  This expression can
        only be used when the server encoding is <literal>UTF8</literal>.  Note
        that checking for normalization using this expression is often faster
        than normalizing possibly already normalized strings.
       </para>
       <para>
        <literal>U&amp;'\0061\0308bc' IS NFD NORMALIZED</literal>
        <returnvalue>t</returnvalue>
       </para></entry>
      </row>

      <row>
       <entry role="func_table_entry"><para role="func_signature">
        <indexterm>
         <primary>bit_length</primary>
        </indexterm>
        <function>bit_length</function> ( <type>text</type> )
        <returnvalue>integer</returnvalue>
       </para>
       <para>
        Returns number of bits in the string (8
        times the <function>octet_length</function>).
       </para>
       <para>
        <literal>bit_length('jose')</literal>
        <returnvalue>32</returnvalue>
       </para></entry>
      </row>

      <row>
       <entry role="func_table_entry"><para role="func_signature">
        <indexterm>
         <primary>char_length</primary>
        </indexterm>
        <indexterm>
         <primary>character string</primary>
         <secondary>length</secondary>
        </indexterm>
        <indexterm>
         <primary>length</primary>
         <secondary sortas="character string">of a character string</secondary>
         <see>character string, length</see>
        </indexterm>
        <function>char_length</function> ( <type>text</type> )
        <returnvalue>integer</returnvalue>
       </para>
       <para role="func_signature">
        <indexterm>
         <primary>character_length</primary>
        </indexterm>
        <function>character_length</function> ( <type>text</type> )
        <returnvalue>integer</returnvalue>
       </para>
       <para>
        Returns number of characters in the string.
       </para>
       <para>