From b7dfcd4a8b6e75a46fb276d995168e8b5c089f54 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jbranchaud <jbranchaud@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2015 10:48:22 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Add Checking The Type Of A Value as a postgres til.

---
 README.md                                |  1 +
 postgres/checking-the-type-of-a-value.md | 41 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 42 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 postgres/checking-the-type-of-a-value.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 71a6759..7f02866 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ smart people at [Hashrocket](http://hashrocket.com/).
 ### postgres
 
 - [Auto Expanded Display](postgres/auto-expanded-display.md)
+- [Checking The Type Of A Value](postgres/checking-the-type-of-a-value.md)
 - [Configure The Timezone](postgres/configure-the-timezone.md)
 - [Count Records By Type](postgres/count-records-by-type.md)
 - [Default Schema](postgres/default-schema.md)
diff --git a/postgres/checking-the-type-of-a-value.md b/postgres/checking-the-type-of-a-value.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d95ed59
--- /dev/null
+++ b/postgres/checking-the-type-of-a-value.md
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# Checking The Type Of A Value
+
+The `pg_typeof()` function allows you to determine the data type of anything
+in Postgres.
+
+```sql
+> select pg_typeof(1);
+ pg_typeof
+-----------
+ integer
+(1 row)
+
+> select pg_typeof(true);
+ pg_typeof
+-----------
+ boolean
+(1 row)
+```
+
+If you try it on an arbitrary string, it is unable to disambiguate which
+string type (e.g. `text` vs `varchar`).
+
+```sql
+> select pg_typeof('hello');
+ pg_typeof
+-----------
+ unknown
+(1 row)
+```
+
+You just have to be a bit more specific.
+
+```sql
+> select pg_typeof('hello'::varchar);
+     pg_typeof
+-------------------
+ character varying
+(1 row)
+```
+
+[source](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-info.html#FUNCTIONS-INFO-CATALOG-TABLE)