Re: COPY as a set returning function

Corey Huinker <corey(dot)huinker(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> Attached is a _very_ rough patch implementing a proof-of-concept function
> copy_srf();
> ...
> As for that future direction, we could either have:
> - a robust function named something like copy_srf(), with parameters for
> all of the relevant options found in the COPY command
> - a function that accepts an options string and parse that
> - we could alter the grammar to make COPY RETURNING col1, col3, col5 FROM
> 'filename' a legit CTE.

I think the last of those suggestions has come up before. It has the
large advantage that you don't have to remember a different syntax for
copy-as-a-function. Once you had the framework for that, other
rows-returning utility commands such as EXPLAIN might plug in as well,
whenever somebody got enough of an itch for it.

regards, tom lane