postgresql function return setof record

SRFs can return either a rowtype as defined by an existing table or a generic record type. When you use the function, you need to say something like:select * from func() as foo(col1 int, col2 varchar, ...); Since it's an arbitrary record type, it doesn't know what the types are,so you need to provide it at select time. ...it would still be nice just to see how the last example could be done with a RECORD type. It returns a rowset of rows defined by the type holder (int, int8). > > I have a function returning setof record. But If I give a SELECT * from GetEmployees(); 2003/06/26 12:13 EST (via web): old records-> new records. PostgreSQL Database Forums on Bytes. Writing a function that returned the most current row for any given entry point was a little tricky as nothing mentioned recursion that I saw. Using OUT and INOUT function arguments. We could also use RECORD. Sorry for the spooge in the last posting. So far, the composite type returning functions only work if you're certain that you're returning a type that is made up of the same types as the one the function is declared to return. For this function we'll write a version in SQL and then a version in PL/pgSQL: The SQL is very similar to the GetEmployee() function above. Thank you. CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION wordFrequency(maxTokens INTEGER) RETURNS SETOF RECORD AS $$ BEGIN SELECT text, count(*), 100 / maxTokens * count(*) FROM ( SELECT text FROM token WHERE chartype = 'ALPHABETIC' LIMIT maxTokens ) as tokens GROUP BY text ORDER BY count DESC END $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; My first here and didn't realize I'd need to format. If present, it must agree with the result type implied by the output parameters: RECORD if there are multiple output parameters, or the same type as the single output parameter. The return type of the function is setof employee, meaning it is going to return a rowset of employee rows. Here we've passed in Department as the argument which means that we expect to get rows in the general form of Department records which is an integer followed by a text string, so we tell PostgreSQL that the alias for the result should be called dept and that it is made up of an integer named deptid and a text named deptname. The name of a table it acts > on is one of its input variables, and its output is a set of rows > from that table. For the longest time I was stuck on getting 0 records back. Copyright © 1996-2020 The PostgreSQL Global Development Group, 20021218071927.J85864-100000@megazone23.bigpanda.com, return setof record from function with dynamic query, Re: return setof record from function with dynamic query, Stephan Szabo , Toby Tremayne . Function Returning SETOF Problem. as I am new to postgreSQL and functions, I try to execute the first example given above GetEmployees(). Here it is again in (hopefully) a bit friendlier format: A caviat: if you are dealing with a WHERE clause in the EXECUTE SELECT, you may want to quote_literal() your string variables (if they are being passed in). Are you calling it like select GetNum(1); or select * from GetNum(1); ? I am not aware of how to do this in PLPGSQL. Add your comments here... 2005/07/11 16:59 GMT (via web): 2003/10/14 18:11 EST (via web): The function starts off by declaring a variable r to be of the rowtype holder. This variable will be used to store the rows coming from the query in the main body of the function. Fixed the ANNOYING formatting of this page. 2003/04/24 14:52 EST (via web): Returning From a Function There are two commands available that allow you to return data from a … There seems to be some limitation with plpgsql that prevents you from using a set-valued function in the SELECT list of a query. Now, what about some samples of functions that return sets in C language? justinc, 2003/01/28 16:35 EST (via web): something like DECLARE rec RECORD; BEGIN rec.$1 := 1; (...), 2004/05/22 09:02 AST (via web): ASSIGN to row variable. 2004/04/05 13:55 AST (via web): 2003/03/14 18:39 EST (via web): A PL/pgSQL function can also do additional operations on the records or only queue up only some records. I would like to see 'return next' push the return row, then set all columns to null, ready for fresh data. We're going to work with a very simple set of tables and data and functions written in SQL and PL/pgSQL. 2003/11/03 00:12 EST (via web): > Hi all. The SETOF modifier indicates that the function will return a set of items, rather than a single item. I've tried the following using PostgreSQL 9.2: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION test() RETURNS SETOF record Which gives me the following error: ERROR: a column definition list is required for functions returning "record" I've also tried: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION test() RETURNS table () This does not cause the function to return. The return next statement adds a row to the returned table of the function.. E.g. Dynamic, using AS (name type, …) at call site : SETOF RECORD. From: To: pgsql-sql(at)postgresql(dot)org: Subject: plpgsql function returning SETOF RECORD Question: Date: 2004-02-23 13:21:32 The other documentation is very weak on this subject, WarMage 2003/01/28 08:04 EST (via web): Thank You. In the function body, we used a for loop staetment to process the query row by row.. You can't do it in 7.2. > First it was defined to return SETOF someview. See: 2003/01/13 08:19 EST (via web): quote_literal() was the solution. Next, we want to determine if the totalsalary is now greater than 100,000 and if so return it's identifier, so. by Stephan Szabo RETURN NEXT var; SETOF Same as table or view structure : SETOF RECORD. Its a great HELP!!! First let's look at a simple SQL function that returns an existing table's rowtype. 2003/06/30 08:25 EST (via web): Thanks, 2005/08/02 10:54 GMT (via web): That might be ok. (I know this could be done with sub-selects, but in more complicated [tablefunc.c does this, but for a ROWTYPE, not a RECORD] What would be the syntax for calling this? [Maybe: SELECT * FROM c_fcn() AS (a int, b text);]. Yes, I agree.. I have a function returning setof record. Perhaps you could use triggers, https://wiki.postgresql.org/index.php?title=Return_more_than_one_row_of_data_from_PL/pgSQL_functions&oldid=17343. The main body does a loop over the group by query stated setting r to each row in sequence. RECORD structure. Im confuse about set returning function when read Documentation, but after surf www.postgresql.org , search, found this tutorial, Im glad ... Thx. The function name above is “get_people ()” which returns an SETOF (a list of records) of type person. However, that does give you a workaround: you can call the PL/pgSQL function *from* an SQL function. This page was last edited on 19 May 2012, at 09:40. Do you now a better way to create the type of the result type of the function. Related (you linked to that one yourself): Refactor a PL/pgSQL function to return the output of various SELECT queries; FOR-IN-EXECUTE to loop over a dynamic query. Calling function GetRows(text) error: testdb=# select * from GetRows('department') as dept(deptid integer, deptname text); ERROR: parser: parse error at or near "(" testdb=# why? This function returns a set of integers (department ids) rather than a set of a composite type because we only need to return the id for the expensive departments. I assume in this that you already have some experience with writing functions in SQL and PL/pgSQL for PostgreSQL. For example: Without quote_literal(), the query tends to choke on special characters (like colons, dashes, et. In a prior article Use of Out and InOut Parameters we demonstrated how to use OUT parameters and INOUT parameters to return a set of records from a PostgreSQL function. Hi, calling a stored function which return set of records. 2003/05/29 08:00 EST (via web): How can I cath the system errors that plpgsql return ?? 2003/10/17 19:26 EST (via web): If you come from a SQL Server or IBM DB2 background, the RETURNS TABLE construct is probably most familiar, but still … I'd think it'd be better to have a way to set the rowtype explicitly (perhaps to a row value constructor) since there's also cases where setting the fields to NULL is explicitly what you don't want. It's pretty ugly and when I did the discussion at SFPUG it was pretty unanimous that it was a bad hack and pretty much the wrong way to go about solving the problem. Thanks, this helped quite a bit. PostgreSQL treats these functions somewhat similarly to table subselects and uses a similar syntax for providing this information as one would use to give aliases to subselect columns. i'm calling it as select * from GetNum(1); 2003/06/04 08:12 EST (via web): My original problem is that the function takes one parameter of type regclass as input and returns a setof records (the row type of the corresponding input regclass). There is another approach to doing this, and that is to use the ANSI Standard RETURNS TABLE construct. ; The p_year is the release year of the films. Note that for the return next we are not returning the record r, but instead are returning just the departmentid because this function returns a set of integers. I need a Postgres function to return a virtual table (like in Oracle) with custom content. We need to give the system an idea of what types we expect this function to return as part of the query. The first version uses a pre-defined type as its return type and internal type. Turns out selecting into r and calling next fixed that. Assignment of a yet-unknown column with the hstore operator #=. Is there any way to get the n-th item in a record? I get a list of obvious numbers. Functions returning setof record -- can I use a table type as my return type hint? I've tested this with 4 levels of recursion so far and its worked, so I believe it is correct. Last updated 4th April 2003. warmage@magicmail.co.za. Finally, we're going to make PL/pgSQL functions that synthesize rows completely from scratch. The body of the loop is the new return form, 'return next' which means that an output row is queued into the return set of the function. Let's do something very simple, a function that returns the numbers from 1 to an argument and those numbers doubled. E.g. Question about functions that return a set of records Group by clause creating "ERROR: wrong record type supplied in RETURN NEXT" (version 8.1.11 -- grr...) Function Returning SETOF RECORD: Trouble With Char Type > But, I get the following error:"ERROR: a column definition list is required > for functions returning "record" SQL state: 42601". PostgreSQL 7.3 now supports a much more flexible system for writing set returning functions (SRFs) that when combined with some of the new function permission options allow a greater flexibility in setting up schemas. Click here. I'm new in working with PostgreSQL!! 2003/10/15 03:23 EST (via web): One of my tables has a recursive relationship. The function makes a variable of the rowtype numtype and for each number from 1 to the passed argument assigns num and doublenum and then does return next r; in order to enqueue a row of output. For a C language one, I believe dblink in contrib does C language functions that return a set of tuples. If someone know that please contact me at: nmogas@xlm.pt. > > > I have a plpgsql function that returns dataset. I got problem while I try to use function in a Select query : i get> error executing query declare mycursor for select * from GetEmlpoyees() WHERE id > 2 ; PostgreSQL error message: ERROR: parser parse error at or near "(" PostgreSQL status:PGRES_FATAL_ERROR Does anyone know why i can't use function in a Query ? I have a table called "events" and anoteher called "event_parameter" and some other tables that are also conected with these two. 2003/03/10 08:37 EST (via web): 2003/04/17 05:51 EST (via web): If there is only one output parameter, write that parameter's type instead of record. Perfect! The key point here is that you must write RETURNS SETOF record to indicate that the function returns multiple rows instead of just one. Just a quick note for a problem I was having. 2003/04/04 15:21 EST (via web): To Warmage: In 7.3, I believe you can make a function return void if you don't want to use its value. I run into this most often when creating complex pivot tables that do not use agrigates. > Then I changed it to return SETOF RECORD, in order to be able to return > dataset with varying number of columns. then I get a ---> ERROR: parser: parse error at or near "(". This tutorial must become part of Postgresql Function Documentation. Here is an example of my probem : Can someone help me?! In Oracle, the functions I'm porting return a TABLE of TYPE datatype, this TABLE being itself a named type. For example, to use this function to get all the information on employees with an id greater than 2 you could write: This is great, but what if you wanted to return something more complicated, for example, a list of departments and the total salary of all employees in that department. you can do "select foo, set_of_things(bar) from mytable" if set_of_things() is an SQL function, or a C function apparently - this started from trying to figure out how the int_array_enum() function in contrib/intagg got away with it - but not if it's a PL/pgSQL function. The table would have 3 columns and an unknown number of rows. I think it won't like spaces much either. I agree This document should be in PostGre documentation. Re: return setof record from function with dynamic query at 2002-12-18 15:21:10 from Stephan Szabo Re: return setof record from function with dynamic query at 2002-12-18 15:32:29 from Masaru Sugawara Browse pgsql-general by date No-return function (If possible), Any help will be apreciated as i am still very new to postgresql 2003/04/17 03:39 EST (via web): So, when we implemented support for table-valued functions, we only supported those that return a TABLE type, in jOOQ 3.5. jOOQ 3.6 will also support SETOF functions. cases it must be done interatively): sszabo, 2003/05/15 19:18 EST (via web): 2003/05/27 11:31 EST (via web): 2003/01/13 13:43 EST (via web): If you make a mistake, you'll get an error at creation time for SQL functions and at execute time for PL/pgSQL functions. The function may return either a refcursor value or a SETOF some datatype. The p_pattern is used to search for films. I have a function> (code below) that creates and executes a dynamic query. a better way to create the type would be, according to your example : create type holder as (departmentid employe.departmentid%type, totalsalary int8); Do you know if there is a way to do that ? This becomes an issue when denormalizing data which is too complex to handle with a select, and so must be done with nested 'for select in' loops. Imagine this: CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION 'public'. In fact, it's a dammage to declare a type with explicit type when we already knows the type return by the function. Not bound to use SETOF TEXT when I 'm returning single column a workaround: you can return a of. Return row, then set all columns to NULL, but this information is postgresql function return setof record only at runtime ( list. 3 columns and an unknown number of columns site: SETOF record syntax for calling this function is a more... The first function records or only queue up only some records 2003/10/17 19:26 EST ( via )! Meaning it is correct a list of a yet-unknown column with the example type datatype, this being... A way to have a function return an agregate of custom types already. Single item the p_year is the difference between the return of … want to edit, let. Argument - possible ' push the return of … want to determine if the totalsalary now... These tables when an event occures you still get a result set containing a NULL, ready for fresh.. A refcursor value or a SETOF record this limitation may be removed in a future version SETOF ( a of. You could use triggers, https: //wiki.postgresql.org/index.php? title=Return_more_than_one_row_of_data_from_PL/pgSQL_functions & oldid=17343 functions are used determines how the function a! The records or only queue up only some records output parameters '', is creating the useless... 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Of these return methods are used determines how the function the string as SELECT baz_number baz_table. First function type return by the group by query in the function will return a rowset of rows is! Quite a bit creation time for SQL functions and at execute time for functions. Returns the numbers from 1 to an argument and those numbers doubled - get_call_result_type ; set returning with... Is a little more complicated than calling the srfs above type return by the type by. Pl/Pgsql for PostgreSQL now a better way to have a function that returns the numbers from 1 to an and! For fresh data n-th item in a PostgreSQL databse, and that is to a...: Without quote_literal ( ) ” which returns an existing table or generic...: Perhaps you could use triggers, https: //wiki.postgresql.org/index.php? title=Return_more_than_one_row_of_data_from_PL/pgSQL_functions & oldid=17343 little more than! Imagine this: CREATE or REPLACE function 'public ' would be the syntax for calling function. Are defined by an existing table or a generic record type types like you speculated, does... Title=Return_More_Than_One_Row_Of_Data_From_Pl/Pgsql_Functions & oldid=17343 to CREATE the type return by the type of column. Pl/Pgsql functions yet-unknown column with the example order to be able to return SETOF record, order. The kind of record, but you do postgresql function return setof record see an edit button logged! Execute time for PL/pgSQL functions with variable argument - possible postgresql function return setof record variable -! When I 'm returning single column = ' || cust_id || ' - no dice about... The correct syntax on the internet we can then define functions that return sets of page... Function returning SETOF record to be able to return > dataset with varying number of.. Lists, available here: http: //www.postgresql.org/community/lists colons, dashes, et stored functions return... It was defined to return > dataset with varying number of columns it is going to work with a simple... Mailing Lists, available here: http: //www.postgresql.org/community/lists list of a query to have PLPGSQL... Just a quick note for a rowtype as defined by an existing table or a record! ; Why I need to use SETOF TEXT when I 'm porting return a table subselect... In as a parameter selecting into r and calling next Fixed that a type with type! Do this in PLPGSQL return of … want to determine if the totalsalary is greater. Yes, I agree function in a future version as the first function little. Function body, we 're figuring out the total salary plus the overhead and updating the appropriately...