pgsql variables from records

In article <20060317112123.A11005@kipshouse.org>, karly@kipshouse.org
says...

SunWuKung <Balazs.Klein@axelero.hu> wrote:

I have a table in which I am storing parameters that I would like to use
as variables in a pgsql procedure.

Currently I find no other way to refer to these than to assign each
record to a variable by a separate query like this:

I'm not sure if you are talking about referenceing the individual
columns, or a set of rows.

For the first case

DECLARE
parameters tp_method1_params;

BEGIN
....

parameters := (SELECT param1, ...paramn) FROM paramtable;

SELECT method(param1, ...paramn);

END;

Or you could declare the method to accapt the record as its input
parameter.

For the second case, use an array. I just learned how to do that
on this list a couple of days ago.

DECLARE
paramarray tp_method_params[];

BEGIN
....

paramarray := ARRAY(SELECT ....);

END;

I hope this answers the question you were asking. {-;

-karl

Declare
max_option integer;

Select Into max_option parameter_value From parameters Where methodid=

Its the second case.
Yes, arrays would be good, however I would need to refer to each value
by its subscript number eg.
Select * From sometable Where id=paramarray[1]
however in my case parameters have no logical order so I would like to
refer to them by their id, like perl hashes eg.
Select * From sometable Where id=paramarray{'max_option'}
(I know there is plperl but I've never tried that and I wouldn't want to
learn it just for this.)
Maybe this can be done by creating a type and an operator for it - I
don't know I have never tried those either.