variadic array arguments, can it work?

Started by Ingmar Brounsabout 14 years ago2 messagesgeneral
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#1Ingmar Brouns
swingi@gmail.com

Hi,

I was trying to write a variadic function where the arguments themselves
are arrays, but calling it does not seem to work. I couldn't find
documentation mentioning this restriction

postgres=# create or replace function foo(variadic args integer[][])
returns integer
as $$
begin return args[2][2]; end;
$$ language plpgsql;

Now I can call the function using variadic:

postgres=# select foo(variadic array[array[1,2],array[3,4]]);
foo
-----
4
(1 row)

but I cannot call it in the normal way...

postgres=# select foo( array[1,2] , array[3,4] );
ERROR: function foo(integer[], integer[]) does not exist at character 8
HINT: No function matches the given name and argument types. You might
need to add explicit type casts.
STATEMENT: select foo( array[1,2] , array[3,4] );
ERROR: function foo(integer[], integer[]) does not exist
LINE 1: select foo( array[1,2] , array[3,4] );
^
HINT: No function matches the given name and argument types. You might
need to add explicit type casts.

I suspect this has to do something with multiple dimensional arrays not
truly being arrays of arrays...

Kind regards,

Ingmar Brouns

version

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
PostgreSQL 9.1.1 on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (GCC) 4.6.1
20110908 (Red Hat 4.6.1-9), 64-
bit
(1 row)

#2Tom Lane
tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us
In reply to: Ingmar Brouns (#1)
Re: variadic array arguments, can it work?

Ingmar Brouns <swingi@gmail.com> writes:

I was trying to write a variadic function where the arguments themselves
are arrays, but calling it does not seem to work. I couldn't find
documentation mentioning this restriction

postgres=# create or replace function foo(variadic args integer[][])

The reason that doesn't work the way you're expecting is that
1-dimensional integer arrays are not a distinct datatype from
2-dimensional integer arrays. The system just sees "variadic int[]"
and expects simple integers in a variadic expansion. Sorry.

regards, tom lane