Re: Scaler forms as function arguments

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, Richard Huxton wrote:

> Not as you've done it. You could pass in text "(1,2,3)", build your query and
> use EXECUTE to execute it.
This boils down the question to the problem which occured with
your promissing link below, because I need to use PL/pgSQL, right?

> Alternatively, you might be able to do it with an
> array parameter (sorry, I don't use arrays, so I can't be sure).
I'll give that a try.

> Read the section on plpgsql in the manuals, you return results one at a time.
> For some examples, see http://techdocs.postgresql.org/ and look for the "Set
> Returning Functions" item.
A very interesting article but if I try the example code:

create table department(id int primary key, name text);

create table employee(id int primary key, name text, salary int, departmentid int references department);

insert into department values (1, 'Management');
insert into department values (2, 'IT');

insert into employee values (1, 'John Smith', 30000, 1);
insert into employee values (2, 'Jane Doe', 50000, 1);
insert into employee values (3, 'Jack Jackson', 60000, 2);

create function GetEmployees() returns setof employee as 'select * from employee;' language 'sql';

create type holder as (departmentid int, totalsalary int8);

create function SqlDepartmentSalaries() returns setof holder as
'
select departmentid, sum(salary) as totalsalary from GetEmployees() group by departmentid
'
language 'sql';

create or replace function PLpgSQLDepartmentSalaries() returns setof holder as
'
declare
r holder%rowtype;
begin
for r in select departmentid, sum(salary) as totalsalary from GetEmployees() group by departmentid loop
return next r;
end loop;
return;
end
'
language 'plpgsql';

I get:

test=# select PLpgSQLDepartmentSalaries() ;
WARNING: Error occurred while executing PL/pgSQL function plpgsqldepartmentsalaries
WARNING: line 5 at return next
ERROR: Set-valued function called in context that cannot accept a set
test=#

Any hint what might be wrong here? I'm using PostgreSQL 7.3.2 under Debian
GNU/Linux (testing).

Kind regards

Andreas.