diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index f69058982..bdf38ad83 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ LinkingTo:
 VignetteBuilder: 
     knitr
 Encoding: UTF-8
-RoxygenNote: 7.2.3
+RoxygenNote: 7.3.0
 Roxygen: list(markdown = TRUE)
 Config/testthat/edition: 2
 SystemRequirements: GDAL (>= 2.0.1), GEOS (>= 3.4.0),
diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 0ccba950d..e9862deb9 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ S3method(is.na,bbox)
 S3method(is.na,crs)
 S3method(is.na,m_range)
 S3method(is.na,z_range)
+S3method(is_geometry_column,PqConnection)
+S3method(is_geometry_column,default)
 S3method(merge,sf)
 S3method(plot,sf)
 S3method(plot,sfc_CIRCULARSTRING)
diff --git a/R/db.R b/R/db.R
index 40a4d9dc8..546b66b49 100644
--- a/R/db.R
+++ b/R/db.R
@@ -559,10 +559,12 @@ setMethod("dbDataType", c("DBIObject", "sf"), function(dbObj, obj) {
 #' @param classes classes inherited
 is_geometry_column <- function(con, x, classes = "") UseMethod("is_geometry_column")
 
+#' @export
 is_geometry_column.PqConnection <- function(con, x, classes = c("pq_geometry")) {
     vapply(x, inherits, logical(1), classes)
 }
 
+#' @export
 is_geometry_column.default <- function(con, x, classes = c("character")) {
     # try all character columns (in conjunction with try_postgis_as_sfc)
     vapply(x, function(x) inherits(x, classes) && !all(is.na(x)),
diff --git a/R/init.R b/R/init.R
index ba875ec24..a29f96320 100644
--- a/R/init.R
+++ b/R/init.R
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #' @importFrom utils head object.size str tail packageVersion compareVersion globalVariables
 #' @importFrom stats aggregate dist na.omit rbinom runif setNames
 #' @importFrom tools file_ext file_path_sans_ext
-#' @importFrom methods as new slot slotNames "slot<-"
+#' @importFrom methods as new slot slotNames slot<-
 #' @importFrom grid convertHeight convertUnit convertWidth current.viewport linesGrob nullGrob pathGrob pointsGrob polylineGrob unit viewport
 #' @import graphics
 #' @importFrom grDevices dev.size rgb cm
diff --git a/man/sf-package.Rd b/man/sf-package.Rd
index 09105a314..5826ccd20 100644
--- a/man/sf-package.Rd
+++ b/man/sf-package.Rd
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
 \docType{package}
 \name{sf-package}
 \alias{sf-package}
-\alias{_PACKAGE}
 \title{sf: Simple Features for R}
 \description{
 \if{html}{\figure{logo.png}{options: style='float: right' alt='logo' width='120'}}
diff --git a/src/mdim.cpp b/src/mdim.cpp
index 9d80eda06..3edf9094b 100644
--- a/src/mdim.cpp
+++ b/src/mdim.cpp
@@ -307,6 +307,7 @@ List CPL_read_mdim(CharacterVector file, CharacterVector array_names, CharacterV
 		dimensions.attr("names") = dim_names;
 		if (! proxy) { // read the arrays:
 			auto data_type(arr->GetDataType());
+			size_t sz = data_type.GetSize();
 			if (data_type.GetClass() == GEDTC_NUMERIC) {
 				NumericVector vec(nValues);
 				if (debug)
@@ -342,7 +343,6 @@ List CPL_read_mdim(CharacterVector file, CharacterVector array_names, CharacterV
 				vec_lst[i] = vec;
 			} else if (data_type.GetClass() == GEDTC_COMPOUND) {
 				const auto &components = data_type.GetComponents();
-				size_t sz = data_type.GetSize();
 				std::vector<GByte> buf(sz * nValues);
 				bool ok = arr->Read(offst.data(),
 							anCount.data(),
@@ -350,21 +350,23 @@ List CPL_read_mdim(CharacterVector file, CharacterVector array_names, CharacterV
 							nullptr, /* stride: default to row-major convention */
 							data_type,
 							&buf[0]);
+				if (!ok)
+					stop("Cannot read array into Compound buffer");
 				DataFrame tbl;
 				GByte *v = buf.data();
 				for (const auto &co: components) { 
 					auto t(co->GetType());
 					if (t.GetClass() == GEDTC_NUMERIC) {
-						if (t.GetSize() != sizeof(double))
+						if (t.GetNumericDataType() != GDT_Float64)
 							stop("only Float64 data supported in numeric compounds");
 						NumericVector vec(nValues);
-						for (int j = 0; j < nValues; j++)
+						for (size_t j = 0; j < nValues; j++)
 							memcpy(&(vec[j]), v + j * sz + co->GetOffset(), sizeof(double));
 						tbl.push_back(vec, co->GetName());
 					} else if (t.GetClass() == GEDTC_STRING) {
 						CharacterVector vec(nValues);
 						const char *str;
-						for (int j = 0; j < nValues; j++) {
+						for (size_t j = 0; j < nValues; j++) {
 							memcpy(&str, v + j * sz + co->GetOffset(), sizeof(const char *));
 							vec[j] = str; // deep copy
 						}
@@ -374,7 +376,25 @@ List CPL_read_mdim(CharacterVector file, CharacterVector array_names, CharacterV
 				}
 				vec_lst[i] = tbl;
 			} else { // GEDTC_STRING:
-				stop("reading string data not implemented");
+				std::vector<GByte> buf(sz * nValues);
+				bool ok = arr->Read(offst.data(),
+							anCount.data(),
+							stp.data(), /* step: defaults to 1,1,1 */
+							nullptr, /* stride: default to row-major convention */
+							data_type,
+							&buf[0]);
+				if (!ok)
+					stop("Cannot read array into string buffer");
+				GByte *v = buf.data();
+				CharacterVector vec(nValues);
+				const char *str;
+				for (size_t j = 0; j < nValues; j++) {
+					memcpy(&str, v + j * sz, sizeof(const char *));
+					vec[j] = str; // deep copy
+				}
+				vec.attr("dim") = dims;
+				vec.attr("units") = arr->GetUnit();
+				vec_lst[i] = vec;
 			}
 		}
 	}