plpgsql multidimensional array assignment results in array of text instead of subarrays

Hello, I’m running 9.4.5 locally on my mac doing some plpgsql development.

I am trying to iterate through a multidimensional array using a foreach loop, as exampled in the documentation at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/plpgsql-control-structures.html#PLPGSQL-FOREACH-ARRAY.

Here is a simplified version of the function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION create_table(
new_table_schema character varying,
new_table_name character varying,
create_log boolean DEFAULT true,
create_source boolean DEFAULT false
) RETURNS void AS
$BODY$
declare
the_tables text[][];
the_table text[];
begin
-- Generate array of tables to create
the_tables[1] := array[new_table_schema, new_table_name];

if (create_source) then
the_tables[2] := array[new_table_schema||'_source', new_table_name||'_source'];
end if;

RAISE NOTICE 'the_tables = %', the_tables;

<<BIGLOOP>>
foreach the_table slice 1 in array the_tables
loop
raise notice 'schema = %; table = %', the_table[1], the_table[2];
end loop BIGLOOP;

end;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

When I run it, I get the following message output:

NOTICE: the_tables = {"{mike,test}","{mike_source,test_source}"}

NOTICE: schema = {mike,test}; table = {mike_source,test_source}

I am expecting:

NOTICE: the_tables = {{'mike','test'},{'mike_source','test_source'}}

NOTICE: schema = mike; table = test

NOTICE: schema = mike_source; table = test_source

I suspect something is happening with the assignment operator :=, as those double quotes seem to indicate the subarrays are being cast to strings?

I tried casting during the assignment, i.e. the_tables[1] := array[new_table_schema, new_table_name]::text[], but that had no effect.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

--
Michael Rasmussen
Sr. Data Engineer
Porch