Why not working under 8.3

----- "Andreas Moeller" <a.moeller@teia.de> wrote:

Following lines produce an error message under 8.3. - but not under
8.1.
Why?

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dodi() RETURNS boolean AS
$$
BEGIN
SELECT 'abc' INTO TEMPORARY foonana;
RETURN FALSE;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

FEHLER: syntax error at "TEMPORARY"
DETAIL: Expected record variable, row variable, or list of scalar
variables following INTO.
CONTEXT: compile of PL/pgSQL function "dodi" near line 2

********** Fehler **********

FEHLER: syntax error at "TEMPORARY"
SQL Status:42601
Detail:Expected record variable, row variable, or list of scalar
variables following INTO.
Kontext:compile of PL/pgSQL function "dodi" near line 2

Are you sure this worked in 8.1? SELECT INTO in plpgsql needs to point to a variable as noted by the error message. You need to declare a variable.

On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Adrian Klaver <aklaver@comcast.net> wrote:

----- "Andreas Moeller" <a.moeller@teia.de> wrote:

Following lines produce an error message under 8.3. - but not under
8.1.
Why?

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dodi() RETURNS boolean AS
$$
BEGIN
SELECT 'abc' INTO TEMPORARY foonana;
RETURN FALSE;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

FEHLER: syntax error at "TEMPORARY"
DETAIL: Expected record variable, row variable, or list of scalar
variables following INTO.
CONTEXT: compile of PL/pgSQL function "dodi" near line 2

********** Fehler **********

FEHLER: syntax error at "TEMPORARY"
SQL Status:42601
Detail:Expected record variable, row variable, or list of scalar
variables following INTO.
Kontext:compile of PL/pgSQL function "dodi" near line 2

Are you sure this worked in 8.1? SELECT INTO in plpgsql needs to point to a variable as noted by the error message. You need to declare a variable.

looks like ambiguity between plpgsql 'select into' and the regular sql
'select into' method which works like 'create table as'. I vaguely
remember something about this changing. In any event. the OP is crazy
to write it like that, 'create [temp] table as' is preferred.

merlin

----- "Adrian Klaver" <aklaver@comcast.net> wrote:

----- "Andreas Moeller" <a.moeller@teia.de> wrote:

Following lines produce an error message under 8.3. - but not under
8.1.
Why?

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dodi() RETURNS boolean AS
$$
BEGIN
SELECT 'abc' INTO TEMPORARY foonana;
RETURN FALSE;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

FEHLER: syntax error at "TEMPORARY"
DETAIL: Expected record variable, row variable, or list of scalar
variables following INTO.
CONTEXT: compile of PL/pgSQL function "dodi" near line 2

********** Fehler **********

FEHLER: syntax error at "TEMPORARY"
SQL Status:42601
Detail:Expected record variable, row variable, or list of scalar
variables following INTO.
Kontext:compile of PL/pgSQL function "dodi" near line 2

Are you sure this worked in 8.1? SELECT INTO in plpgsql needs to point
to a variable as noted by the error message. You need to declare a
variable.

--

Out of curiosity I went back to 8.0 and ran the function and got:
production=> SELECT dodi();
WARNING: column "?column?" has type "unknown"
DETAIL: Proceeding with relation creation anyway.
CONTEXT: SQL statement "SELECT 'abc' INTO TEMPORARY foonana"
PL/pgSQL function "dodi" line 2 at SQL statement
dodi
------
f
(1 row)

Seems it ignores the unknown type and returns the False value. Type casting has been tightened up in 8.3, so this qualifies as an error now.

Adrian Klaver
aklaver@comcast.net

Adrian Klaver <aklaver@comcast.net> writes:

Out of curiosity I went back to 8.0 and ran the function and got:
production=> SELECT dodi();
WARNING: column "?column?" has type "unknown"
DETAIL: Proceeding with relation creation anyway.

Pre-8.2 plpgsql was willing to treat INTO as not special if the word
right after it was not any known plpgsql variable, but this was never
exactly a good thing to rely on. Per the recommendation in the docs,
you should be using CREATE TABLE AS rather than SELECT INTO if you
want to get at the non-plpgsql behavior of SELECT INTO.

regards, tom lane