Re: cannot create function that uses variable table name

On Thursday 16 January 2003 22:32, Matthew Nuzum wrote:
> I have a number of tables in my database that use the concept of
> “display order”, which is a field that can be used in an order by clause
> to dictate what order the results should come out in.
>
> I thought I would be crafty and devise a function that would always
> return the highest numbered item in the table. But it doesn’t work. It
> always gives me a parse error at $1. Here’s the function:

I may be wrong but aren't you trying to do something like this?

INSERT INTO files (accountid, filename, dsply_order)
VALUES ('account2', 'Testing',
(SELECT COALESCE(MAX(dsply_order), 0) + 1 FROM files
WHERE accountid = 'account2'));

Alternatively, assuming that fileid is a serial number, why not just use that
in your order by clause. I assume that you want something like this.

SELECT * FROM files WHERE accountid = 'account2' ORDER BY dsply_order;

This should give you exactly the same result:

SELECT * FROM files WHERE accountid = 'account2' ORDER BY fileid.

It all depends on what problem exactly you are trying to solve of course.

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