Re: ERROR: malformed record literal: "", DETAIL: Missing left parenthesis?

> A question about: ERROR: malformed record literal: ""
> DETAIL: Missing left parenthesis.
>
> Can someone tell me what cause the error?
>
> ========================
> Table z_drop;
> Column | Type
> -------------+------------------------
> run_date | character varying(128)
> adm_year | character varying(4)
> adm_sess | character varying(1)
> faculty | character varying(128)
> ac_cycle | character varying(128)
> deg_code | character varying(128)
> discipline | character varying(128)
> thesis | character varying(128)
> elig_stype | character varying(128)
> stud_source | character varying(128)
> applied | numeric
> reviewed | numeric
> accepted | numeric
> confirmed | numeric
> registered | numeric
> hold | numeric
> forward | numeric
> refused | numeric
> cancelled | numeric
> other | numeric
> pending | numeric
>
>
> PREPARE test(z_drop) AS INSERT INTO z_drop VALUES ($1, $2, $3,
> $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10, $11, $12, $13, $14, $15, $16, $17,
> $18, $19, $20, $21) ;
>
>
>
> EXECUTE test('', '1', '1', '1', '1', '1', '1', '1', '1', '', 1, 1,
> '1', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0') ;

Your EXECUTES expects one argument of type "z_drop", so it goes ahead
and tries to convert '' (the first argument) into something of type
"z_drop". This is a row type, so its string representation would have
to start with "(". It doesn't, hence the error message.

A correct (simplified) example would be:

CREATE TABLE z_drop (id integer PRIMARY KEY, val text);

PREPARE x(z_drop) AS INSERT INTO z_drop VALUES ($1.id, $1.val);
(there is only one argument of type z_drop)

EXECUTE x(ROW(1, 'mama'));
(with an explicit row constructor)
or
EXECUTE x((2, 'papa'));

Yours,
Laurenz Albe