> If that were true, then this:
>
> //with default charset utf8
> create table X (A char(2), B char(2))
> insert into X (A, B) values ('A ', 'B ')
> select A || B from X
>
> would produce this string:
> 'A<7_spaces>B<7_spaces>'
>
> This is clearly not the case. It produces the correct result:
> 'A<singlespace>B<singlespace>'

Nice trick, yes? And you know why it works this way? Because of INTL
module, who convert strings between UTF and UCS. During this process it
applies SUBSTRING(data FROM 1 TO N) to intermediate results.

SY, SD.