Re: Function call costs for SQL and PLPgSQL

Vincenzo Romano <vincenzo(dot)romano(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> I need to create a huge SQL script to load 20+ M rows in a DB.
> I've been force to wrap the inserts into PG functions.
> I can write them in either SQl or PLPgSQL but don't know
> whether this can make a big difference as far as time of
> overall execution is concerned.

> Somewhere else I've been told that SQL function bodies get "inlined"
> during execution. Is thus correct to consider SQL functions "faster"
> that the conterpart written in PLPgSQL?

Inlining only applies to simple-SELECT SQL functions (ie, pure
functions). For what you're trying to do, I think plpgsql will
be faster as well as more flexible.

regards, tom lane