function accepting and returning rows; how to avoid parentheses

From: Kevin Murphy <murphy(at)genome(dot)chop(dot)edu>
To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: function accepting and returning rows; how to avoid parentheses
Date: 2006-12-13 00:42:57
Message-ID: 457F4C91.7050702@genome.chop.edu
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I'd like to have a function that acts as a row filter (that can
optionally expand each row into multiple rows), but I don't know how to
wangle this such that the output is not enclosed in parentheses, i.e.
what I'm getting now is a single column of a composite type instead of
multiple columns matching the original table layout.

Example:

CREATE TABLE sometable (key text, value real);
INSERT INTO sometable VALUES ('A', 1);
INSERT INTO sometable VALUES ('B', 2);

-- unrealistic demo filter function
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION foo(arow sometable) RETURNS SETOF sometable AS $$
DECLARE
BEGIN
RETURN NEXT arow;
RETURN NEXT arow;
RETURN;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

-- SQL front-end for filter function
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION explode(sometable) RETURNS SETOF sometable as $$
SELECT * FROM foo($1) AS t;
$$ LANGUAGE SQL STRICT IMMUTABLE;

select explode(sometable.*) from sometable;
explode
-----------
(A,1)
(A,1)
(B,2)
(B,2)

Thanks,
Kevin

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