Re: Howto automatically define collumn names for a function result.

Have you tried returning SETOF RECORD[] and using the OUT specification?

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION bla(integer, date, OUT date, OUT integer)
RETURNS SETOF RECORD[] AS
$_$
SELECT date AS output_date, $1+2 AS next_record FROM table WHERE id = $1
AND start_date >= $2;
$_$ LANGUAGE SQL;

(Just an example code, I haven't tried it myself. I know it works for
plpgsql functions, not sure for sql functions).

Regards,
--
Jorge Godoy <jgodoy(at)gmail(dot)com>

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 08:08, Andreas <maps(dot)on(at)gmx(dot)net> wrote:

> Hi,
> wouldn't it be great to have functions return "setof something" as result
> where "something" was determined out of the result of a SELECT within the
> function?
> like
>
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION coffee(integer, timestamp, timestamp)
> RETURNS SETOF
> AS
> $BODY$
> SELECT staff_id, name, room, COUNT(coffee_id) AS cupcount
> FROM staff JOIN coffee_log ON staff_fk = staff_id
> WHERE (staff_id = $1) AND (coffee_time BETWEEN $2 AND $3)
> GROUP BY staff_id, name, room
> ORDER BY name;
> $BODY$
> LANGUAGE 'sql' STABLE
>
> There the SELECT dumps a constant set of collumns where as far as I know
> have to be defined as a type to make SETOF happy or define the names
> whenever I call the function which would be tedious.
>
> Actually this is a pretty simple example of some reports I need to produce.
> They have around 60 collumns and there is also an aggregate and filtering
> on an id as well as 2 timestamps.
> Since the aggregate depends on id and timestamps too, it is no solution to
> build a view and select from that within the function.
>
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