Hi,

  I am trying to use the CREATE FUNCTION in order to process multiple
calculation, and forward at the end multiple instances.

This is the SQL statement I am using:

CREATE FUNCTION foo(varchar) RETURNS setof myTable
AS 'UPDATE .......;
INSERT.......;
SELECT myTable.field2 from myTable'
LANGUAGE 'sql';

I always get an error saying that there is a type mismatch between what is
behing the "setof" and what is return by this function (myTable.field2)


Any idea?

(Note: I am using postgresql 7.02)

Fabien



Wed, 30 Aug 2000 17:05:56 +0100
Fabien Thiriet <fabien@freever.com>
How to use the "setof" of CREATE FUNCTION
Fabien Thiriet <fabien@freever.com> writes:
> CREATE FUNCTION foo(varchar) RETURNS setof myTable
> AS 'UPDATE .......;
> INSERT.......;
> SELECT myTable.field2 from myTable'
> LANGUAGE 'sql';

> I always get an error saying that there is a type mismatch between what is
> behing the "setof" and what is return by this function (myTable.field2)

Well, yeah: you declared the function to return a set of the tuple
datatype myTable, not a set of whatever field2's datatype is.
Perhaps you wanted

CREATE FUNCTION foo(varchar) RETURNS setof myTable
AS 'UPDATE .......;
INSERT.......;
SELECT * from myTable'
LANGUAGE 'sql';

which hands back the entire table.  Alternatively, if you do want to
return just the one column, you should declare the function to return
setof whatever-type-field2-is.

Note that functions returning sets are not as useful as they should be,
because you can only call them in limited places (at the top level of
a SELECT-list item, IIRC).  Functions returning tuples are not as
useful as they should be either, because you can't do anything with
the result except select out an individual column; worse, there's this
bizarre syntax for it --- you can't write the obvious foo(x).bar,
for some reason, but have to do x.foo.bar, which only works for simple
field-of-a-relation arguments.  Ugh.  This whole area needs work.

			regards, tom lane

Wed, 30 Aug 2000 14:21:00 -0400
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Re: How to use the "setof" of CREATE FUNCTION 