Re: Trying to avoid a simple temporary variable declaration in a pl/pgsql function

On Sat, Jun 20, 2015 at 10:56 AM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> "David G. Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > I know this could be written quite easily in sql but was wondering if it
> is
> > possible in pl/pgsql.
>
> > CREATE FUNCTION test_func()
> > RETURNS text
> > LANGUAGE 'plpgsql'
> > AS $$
> > BEGIN
> > SELECT 'text_to_return' INTO <what_goes_here?>; --with or without a cast
> > RETURN <what_goes_here?>;
> > END;
> > $$;
>
> > The goal is to return the value of text_to_return without declaring an
> > explicit variable to name in the INTO clause.
>
> INTO requires a declared variable as target.
>
> However, I'm wondering why you don't just use "RETURN expression"
> if this is all that will be in the function.
>
>
​The use of SELECT is required and will likely have a CTE and a set of SQL
CASE expressions as part of it.
​
It isn't a problem to declare it myself but I thought I had read about
there being an implicit variable name that could be used instead. I guess
I mis-remembered...

​Thanks for the quick response.

David J.