Take the 2-minute tour ×  I have a the following simple table in
postgreSQL:  CREATE TABLE data ( id bigint NOT NULL, text_column
text, );  The values of the text_column , as I see them in the
phpPgAdmin web site, are numbers (long). As I read, postgreSQL
keeps a pointer to the actual data. How can I fetch the actual
string value of the text_column? Doing:  select text_column from
data   returns numbers...   share|improve this question Are you
absolutely sure the text_column is defined as text? The
behaviour you are describing sounds as if the column is defined
as oid - which is the stupid default behaviour of Hibernate when
creating LOB columns. Can you copy and paste the output of the
\d+ data command in psql? Make sure you do show us the exact
output, not some kind of "obfuscated" one. – 
a_horse_with_no_name Aug 28 '12 at 9:05 add comment  2 Answers
You must've read too deep. PostgreSQL returns the actual data
when you select it. If it's returning numbers, then numbers are
stored in the field.  share|imp