Bit strings are strings of 1's and 0's. They can be used to store or visualize bit masks. There are two SQL bit types: BIT(x) and BIT VARYING(x); where x is a positive integer.
BIT type data must match the length x exactly; it is an error to attempt to store shorter or longer bit strings. BIT VARYING is of variable length up to the maximum length x; longer strings will be rejected. BIT without length is equivalent to BIT(1), BIT VARYING without length specification means unlimited length.
Note: Prior to PostgreSQL 7.2, BIT type data was zero-padded on the right. This was changed to comply with the SQL standard. To implement zero-padded bit strings, a combination of the concatenation operator and the
substringfunction can be used.