Joe Conway <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > This is an illustration of why the expression SRF API isn't very useful > for returning composite types ;) > The number is actually a pointer to the result row. There is no way > under the expression API to get at the individual columns directly.
You can get at one column --- as of 7.3 it is possible to do SELECT (bar(1)).field2; (the parens are required to avoid syntax conflicts). However SELECT is not bright enough to do anything useful with a composite value directly. Long ago (ie, in Postquel days) there seems to have been support for breaking apart a composite result into multiple output columns. (I *think* that was what the "fjoin" variant of targetlists was for.) But it's been dead code for a long time --- probably Yu and Chen broke it while converting the system to use SQL-spec syntax for SELECTs. I am thinking that in 7.3 we might admit that that code's never gonna get fixed, and alter SELECT so that a composite result appearing in a SELECT targetlist draws an error. If anyone does someday resurrect fjoin-like functionality, a reasonable SQL-style syntax for invoking it would be SELECT (bar(1)).*; which would still leave us wanting to raise an error if you just write "SELECT bar(1)". regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to [EMAIL PROTECTED])