sugar for PL/PgSQL set-returning functions that want to return the result
of evaluating a query; it should also be more efficient than repeated
RETURN NEXT statements. Based on an earlier patch from Pavel Stehule.
name. With this patch, it is always possible for the user to qualify a
plpgsql variable name if needed to avoid ambiguity. While there is much more
work to be done in this area, this simple change removes one unnecessary
incompatibility with Oracle. Per discussion.
of variable substitution and plan caching behavior in dedicated sections.
(A lot of this material existed already, but was scattered in various places
in the chapter.) Reorganize material a little bit, mostly to try to avoid
diving into deep details in the first introductory sections. Document some
fine points that had escaped treatment before, notably the ability to qualify
plpgsql variable names with block labels. Some minor wordsmithing here and
there.
with a plpgsql-defined cursor. The underlying mechanism for this is that the
main SQL engine will now take "WHERE CURRENT OF $n" where $n is a refcursor
parameter. Not sure if we should document that fact or consider it an
implementation detail. Per discussion with Pavel Stehule.
were accepted by prior Postgres releases. This takes care of the loose end
left by the preceding patch to downgrade implicit casts-to-text. To avoid
breaking desirable behavior for array concatenation, introduce a new
polymorphic pseudo-type "anynonarray" --- the added concatenation operators
are actually text || anynonarray and anynonarray || text.
Standard English uses "may", "can", and "might" in different ways:
may - permission, "You may borrow my rake."
can - ability, "I can lift that log."
might - possibility, "It might rain today."
Unfortunately, in conversational English, their use is often mixed, as
in, "You may use this variable to do X", when in fact, "can" is a better
choice. Similarly, "It may crash" is better stated, "It might crash".
Also update two error messages mentioned in the documenation to match.
more, and standard_conforming_strings less, because in the future non-E
strings will not treat backslashes specially.
Also use E'' strings where backslashes are used in examples. (The
existing examples would have drawn warnings.)
Backpatch to 8.2.X.
merely a matter of fixing the error check, since the underlying Portal
infrastructure already handles it. This in turn allows these statements
to be used in some existing plpgsql and plperl contexts, such as a
plpgsql FOR loop. Also, do some marginal code cleanup in places that
were being sloppy about distinguishing SELECT from SELECT INTO.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add dynamic record inspection to PL/PgSQL, useful for generic triggers:
tval2 := r.(cname);
or
columns := r.(*);
Titus von Boxberg
An article at WebProNews quoted from the PG docs as to the merits of
stored procedures. I have added a bit more material on their merits,
as well as making a few changes to improve the introductions to
PL/Perl and PL/Tcl.
Chris Browne
the builtin functions (although some more entries are still needed),
and remove the duplicate index entries that have been causing
collateindex.pl warnings. Consistently use "int" and "bigint", rather
than a mix of "int", "integer", "int4", "bigint", and "int8". Make
parenthesis style in syntax examples more consistent. Various
copy-editing for newly-added documentation and SGML markup fixes.
end of the block:
<<label>>
begin
...
end label;
Similarly for loops. This is per PL/SQL. Update the documentation and
add regression tests. Patch from Pavel Stehule, code review by Neil
Conway.
instead of just scalar variables. Add regression tests and update the
documentation. Along the way, remove some redundant error checking
code from exec_stmt_perform().
Original patch from Pavel Stehule, reworked by Neil Conway.
These contain the SQLSTATE and error message of the current exception,
respectively. They are scope-local variables that are only defined
in exception handlers (so attempting to reference them outside an
exception handler is an error). Update the regression tests and the
documentation.
Also, do some minor related cleanup: export an unpack_sql_state()
function from the backend and use it to unpack a SQLSTATE into a
string, and add a free_var() function to pl_exec.c
Original patch from Pavel Stehule, review by Neil Conway.
This allows the result of executing a SELECT to be assigned to a row
variable, record variable, or list of scalars. Docs and regression tests
updated. Per Pavel Stehule, improvements and cleanup by Neil Conway.
>>>
>>>No, and I think it should be in the manual as an example.
>>>
>>>You will need to enter a loop that uses exception handling to detect
>>>unique_violation.
>>
>>Pursuant to an IRC discussion to which Dennis Bjorklund and
>>Christopher Kings-Lynne made most of the contributions, please find
>>enclosed an example patch demonstrating an UPSERT-like capability.
>>
David Fetter
