I thought we had an example of this type of function in the docs, but we don't. Here is one:
http://www.brasileiro.net:8080/postgres/cookbook/view-recipes.adp?section_id=535&format=long --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Lane wrote: > "David Durst" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > CREATE FUNCTION lookup_account(varchar(32)) RETURNS SETOF accounts AS ' > > DECLARE > > aname ALIAS FOR $1; > > rec RECORD; > > BEGIN > > select into rec * from accounts where accountname = aname; > > return rec; > > END;' > > LANGUAGE 'plpgsql'; > > As written, this function can only return a single row (so you hardly > need SETOF). If you intend that it be able to return multiple rows > when accountname is not unique, then you'll need a loop and RETURN NEXT > commands. It'd probably be less tedious to use a SQL-language function: > > CREATE FUNCTION lookup_account(varchar(32)) RETURNS SETOF accounts AS ' > select * from accounts where accountname = $1' > language sql; > > > This seems to hang when I attempt to select it using: > > > select accountid( > > lookup_account('some account')), > > accountname(lookup_account('some account')), > > type(lookup_account('some account')), > > balance(lookup_account('some account')); > > It works for me (in 7.3), but in any case that's a bad approach: you're > invoking the function four times, independently. Better is > > select accountid,accountname,type,balance > from lookup_account('some account'); > > (again, this syntax requires 7.3) > > regards, tom lane > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly > -- Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us [EMAIL PROTECTED] | (610) 359-1001 + If your life is a hard drive, | 13 Roberts Road + Christ can be your backup. | Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073 ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster