Column ByteArray should not require a length

[gertvdijk]

IIUC, the Column<ByteArray> type is mapped to PostgreSQL's bytea column type. It is variable length and does not even have a length attribute. In Exposed, however I'm required to provide a length as parameter:

val data: Column<ByteArray> = binary("data", <length-parameter>)

which is then ignored, because I can insert ByteArrays with a longer value than specified, at least in Batch Insert. This is all quite confusing for me.

Suggestions:

• make it an optional parameter. (other dialects also don't always require you to specify a length.)
• if specified, validate the data before passing it to the database? (not sure if this is what you want in Exposed, but it seems reasonable as it also validates the type.)
• if specified, either
  • produce a log statement that the length specifier is not enforced/handled by this dialect. OR
  • set a CHECK constraint to enforce the maximum length in the database

[Ingwersaft]

@gertvdijk, @Tapac, @hichem-fazai: After the merge this can be closed I think :)