Moving from Sybase to PostgreSQL - Stored Procedures

Andre Schnoor wrote:

Hi,

I'm moving from Sybase to pgsql but have problems with stored procedures.
The typical procedure uses

a) named parameters,
b) local variable declarations and assignments
c) transactions
d) cursors, views, etc.

I can't seem to find these things in the Postgres function syntax.
Procedures can be as long as 20-250 lines, performing heavy data
manipulation tasks, running from a few seconds up to several hours. Database
size is approx. 20GB.

Functions in pgsql are very limited compared to Sybase procedures, so I'll
have to find a workaround somehow. Perhaps somebody can point me to examples
or hints regarding this issue.

Thanks in advance!

pgsql is not the only language that you can use when writing PosgreSQL
functions. Other languages like Perl and Java will provide a richer
functionality.

PostgreSQL doesn't have stored procedures and its functions will always
run within the transaction that was in effect when the call was issued
so your Sybase stored procedures involving several hours of execution
must probably be rewritten so that you move the transaction demarcation
to a client that issues several more short-lived calls.

Regards,
Thomas Hallgren