diff --git a/src/backend/commands/vacuum.c b/src/backend/commands/vacuum.c
index 1cd4759cc7..74df108c63 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/vacuum.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/vacuum.c
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  *
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *    $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/backend/commands/vacuum.c,v 1.20 1997/02/18 04:13:57 momjian Exp $
+ *    $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/backend/commands/vacuum.c,v 1.21 1997/03/06 11:41:09 vadim Exp $
  *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -1633,8 +1633,8 @@ vc_bucketcpy(AttributeTupleForm attr, Datum value, Datum *bucket, int16 *bucket_
 	    if (*bucket_len != 0)
 	    	pfree(DatumGetPointer(*bucket));
 	    *bucket = PointerGetDatum(palloc(len));
-	    *bucket_len = len;
 	}
+	*bucket_len = len;
     	memmove(DatumGetPointer(*bucket), DatumGetPointer(value), len);
     }
 }