Aglet

Verify Whitespace Handling Preserves Import Meaning

Verification should compare exact text and its intended behavior, not just appearance. Use field-specific expectations for leading, trailing, and internal whitespace. Include a case where spacing matters and an ordinary control so the change proves the declared normalization contract instead of simply making every string shorter or more likely to match.

Check whether the outcome improved

  1. Exercise the whitespace contract

    Import representative leading, trailing, repeated internal, and line-break values under each affected field rule. Compare exact strings with independent expectations. Keep a meaningful-spacing case in the matrix so a universal trim or collapse cannot pass merely because all ordinary examples remain readable after the transformation is applied.

  2. Check preview and stored representation

    Observe any preview normalization and compare it with saved and retrieved text. Use a representation that makes invisible differences clear during review. Confirm that visual clipping or browser whitespace rendering is not being used as evidence that the underlying value was preserved, and that accepted formatting survives a supported export where relevant.

  3. Verify the representative comparison

    Exercise the lookup, filter, or presentation behavior that originally exposed the issue. Check both intended matches and distinct values that should remain separate. Confirm the correction does not broaden identity matching through extra normalization or preserve unwanted spacing in a field whose documented import contract explicitly removes it.

What to carry forward

Accept when field-specific transformations, exact saved text, and representative behavior agree with the declared contract. Record untested field types and comparison paths separately. A visually clean preview remains incomplete evidence when stored characters or downstream matching have not been compared with the same controlled whitespace fixtures.

Technical background: PostgreSQL documentation.

Keep the decision with the work.

Use a Work Item in Aglet to record the problem, the evidence you have, and the next decision. Add an owner and priority, then keep updates in the discussion so the next person can follow the reasoning.

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