Re: syntax question

On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 03:21:15PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Adrian Klaver <adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com> writes:
> > On 6/3/21 12:01 PM, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> >> On Thu, Jun 3, 2021 at 08:58:03PM +0200, Marc Millas wrote:
> >>> within a function, I want to create another function.
>
> >> You can't create functions inside of functions; same for procedures.
>
> > Sure you can:
>
> Yeah. The actual problem here is that Marc is expecting variable
> substitution to occur within a utility (DDL) statement, which it
> doesn't. The workaround is to build the command as a string and
> use EXECUTE, as Adrian illustrated:
>
> > EXECUTE 'create function ' || bidule || '() RETURNS void language
> > plpgsql AS $fnc$ BEGIN END; $fnc$ ';
>
> This is not terribly well explained in the existing docs. I tried
> to improve the explanation awhile ago in HEAD:
>
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/plpgsql-statements.html#PLPGSQL-STATEMENTS-GENERAL-SQL

Oh, I thought he wanted to declare a function inside the function that
could be called only by that function, like private functions in Oracle
packages can do. Yes, you can create a function that defines a function
that can be called later. I guess you could also create a function that
_conditionally_ creates a function that it can call itself too. My
point is that you can't create a function that has function scope ---
they all have schema scope.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

If only the physical world exists, free will is an illusion.