2200DERRORTier 2 — Caution✅ HIGH confidence

invalid escape octet

Category: Data ExceptionVersions: All Postgres versions

What this means

SQLSTATE 2200D is raised when an escape sequence in a string literal or pattern contains an invalid octet (byte value) — for example, a backslash escape sequence referencing a byte value outside the valid range.

Why it happens

1An escape sequence in a pattern or string resolves to an invalid byte value for the current encoding

How to reproduce

Invalid octet in an escape sequence.

trigger — this will ERROR

ERROR: invalid escape octet

Fix 1: Use valid escape sequences for the target encoding

When embedding byte sequences in string literals.

fix

SELECT E'\x41'; -- valid: 'A' in UTF-8

Why this works

Use escape sequences that produce valid byte values for the database encoding.

Sources

📚 Official docs: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/errcodes-appendix.html

🔧 Source ref: Class 22 — Data Exception

Confidence assessment

✅ HIGH confidence

Standard SQLSTATE. Rare in practice.