BUG #5753: Existing Functions No Longer Work

"Vince Maxey" <vamax27@yahoo.com> writes:

Recently I upgraded a personal application built a number of years ago,
including java, eclipse, struts and postgresql and now face an issue with
postgresql in that application functions no longer work, specfically as
related to refcursors. The original application was based on postgresql 8.4
I believe.
...
But when I try to call the function: select test_proc(2); I get a column
header: test_proc refcursor and the value in this column is simply: <unnamed
portal n>, where n seems to indicate how many times I have run a cursor from
the SQL window.

The example you give acts exactly as I would expect, ie, it returns the
generated name of a cursor. And it does so in every release back to at
least 8.0, not just 9.0. So I think you've simplified your example to
the point that it no longer demonstrates whatever problem you're
actually having.

regards, tom lane

Thanks for your response, Tom.

I guess my question would be, what needs to change in my syntax to expect to get
one row returned?

Here are a couple of examples that do work in my existing application prior to
my recent computer switch and re-build (and I have well over 100 of these types
of functions defined, some more complex than others, but I figured a simple
example would help someone else to most easily be able to help me).

-- Function: dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint)
-- DROP FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint)
  RETURNS refcursor AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
 
 loc refcursor;
BEGIN
 open loc for
  select * from dimension.location_holiday where holidayid = $1; 
 return loc;
END;
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE
  COST 100;
ALTER FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint) OWNER TO postgres;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint) TO public;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint) TO postgres;

-- Function: dimension.get_location_list(character varying, character varying,
integer)
-- DROP FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying, character
varying, integer);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer)
  RETURNS refcursor AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
 loc refcursor;
BEGIN
 IF $3 = 1 THEN
  open loc for   
  select a.locationid, a.locationname, a.partnerid, b.partnername,
a.phone1,a.phone2,  

  a.fax1, a.fax2,a.physaddress1, a.physaddress2, a.physcityid, e.city||',
'||e.statecode||'  '||e.zipcode,
  a.contact1, a.contact2, a.email1, a.email2, a.activestatus, a.timezone,
a.taxrate, e.statecode,a.faxflag,
  a.ticklerflag,case when a.ticklerflag = 't' then 'YES' else 'NO' end, e.city
  from dimension.location_base a, dimension.partner b, postal.us_zip e
  where a.partnerid = b.partnerid and a.physcityid = e.zipid and e.statecode =
$2 order by a.locationname;
 ELSE
  IF $3 = 0 THEN
   open loc for   
   select a.locationid, a.locationname, a.partnerid, b.partnername,
a.phone1,a.phone2,  

   a.fax1, a.fax2,a.physaddress1, a.physaddress2, a.physcityid, e.city||',
'||e.statecode||'  '||e.zipcode,
   a.contact1, a.contact2, a.email1, a.email2, a.activestatus, a.timezone,
a.taxrate, e.statecode,a.faxflag,
   a.ticklerflag,case when a.ticklerflag = 't' then 'YES' else 'NO' end, e.city
   from dimension.location_base a, dimension.partner b, postal.us_zip e
   where a.partnerid = b.partnerid and a.physcityid = e.zipid and e.statecode =
$2

   and lower(a.locationname) like $1||'%' order by a.locationname; 
  ELSE
   open loc for   
   select a.locationid, a.locationname, a.partnerid, b.partnername,
a.phone1,a.phone2,  

   a.fax1, a.fax2,a.physaddress1, a.physaddress2, a.physcityid, e.city||',
'||e.statecode||'  '||e.zipcode,
   a.contact1, a.contact2, a.email1, a.email2, a.activestatus, a.timezone,
a.taxrate, e.statecode,a.faxflag,
   a.ticklerflag,case when a.ticklerflag = 't' then 'YES' else 'NO' end, e.city
   from dimension.location_base a, dimension.partner b, postal.us_zip e
   where a.partnerid = b.partnerid and a.physcityid = e.zipid and a.partnerid =
$1;
 
  END IF;
 END IF;
 return loc;
END;
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE
  COST 100;
ALTER FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying, character varying,
integer) OWNER TO postgres;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer) TO public;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer) TO postgres;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer) TO "eMenuAdmin";

I am running my test procs from the pgAdminIII GUI.  Is my syntax wrong to
execute the function?  If I run select test_proc1(3), I do get the correct
result which is a column header (test_proc1 integer) and a value (2).  So why
wouldn't I get a 6-column result set when running select test_proc(2) ?

My java code syntax is as follows:

 public Collection getLocationList(String pname, String ste, int type) {   
  PartnerDAO ef = new PartnerDAO();
  CallableStatement proc = null;
  Connection conn = ef.getConnection();
  Collection locations = new ArrayList();      
  try {   
   proc = conn.prepareCall("{ ?= call dimension.get_location_list(?,?,?) }");
   proc.registerOutParameter(1, Types.OTHER);
      proc.setString(2, pname.toLowerCase().trim());
      proc.setString(3, ste);
      proc.setInt(4, type);  
      conn.setAutoCommit(false);
      proc.execute();      
      ResultSet rs = (ResultSet) proc.getObject(1);
      while (rs.next()) {
       LocationVO eRec = new LocationVO();              
       eRec.setLocationId(rs.getInt(1));
       eRec.setLocationName(rs.getString(2));
       eRec.setPartnerId(rs.getInt(3));
    eRec.setPartnerName(rs.getString(4));
    eRec.setPhone1(rs.getString(5));
    eRec.setDbphone1(rs.getString(5));
    eRec.setPhone2(rs.getString(6));
    eRec.setDbphone2(rs.getString(6));
    eRec.setFax1(rs.getString(7));
    eRec.setDbfax1(rs.getString(7));
    eRec.setFax2(rs.getString(8));
    eRec.setDbfax2(rs.getString(8));
    eRec.setAddress1(rs.getString(9));
    eRec.setAddress2(rs.getString(10));
    eRec.setCityId(rs.getInt(11));
    eRec.setCityName(rs.getString(12));
    eRec.setContact1(rs.getString(13));
    eRec.setDbcontact1(rs.getString(13));
    eRec.setContact2(rs.getString(14));
    eRec.setDbcontact2(rs.getString(14));
    eRec.setEmail1(rs.getString(15));
    eRec.setDbemail1(rs.getString(15));
    eRec.setEmail2(rs.getString(16));
    eRec.setDbemail2(rs.getString(16));
    eRec.setStatus(rs.getInt(17));
    eRec.setDbstatus(rs.getString(17));
    eRec.setTimeZone(rs.getString(18));
    eRec.setTaxRate(rs.getDouble(19));
    eRec.setDbtaxRate(rs.getDouble(19));
    eRec.setStateCode(rs.getString(20));
    eRec.setFaxFlag(Boolean.parseBoolean(rs.getString(21)));
    eRec.setDbfaxFlag(Boolean.parseBoolean(rs.getString(21)));
    eRec.setTicklerFlag(Boolean.parseBoolean(rs.getString(22)));
    eRec.setTicklerFlagText(rs.getString(23));
    eRec.setScName(rs.getString(24));
    eRec.setCopyMenuSourceId(0);
       locations.add(eRec);    
      }   
  
  } catch (Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }finally {
   clearResources(conn, proc);
  }
  return locations;  
 }

If I am not including something specific required to actually display a result
set, can you enlighten me?  How would you write a function to return a row from
the test data I provided?  I'm stumped.

Sincerely,

Vince Maxey

----- Original Message ----
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Vince Maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com>
Cc: pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org
Sent: Sat, November 13, 2010 1:03:46 PM
Subject: Re: [BUGS] BUG #5753: Existing Functions No Longer Work

"Vince Maxey" <vamax27@yahoo.com> writes:

Recently I upgraded a personal application built a number of years ago,
including java, eclipse, struts and postgresql and now face an issue with
postgresql in that application functions no longer work, specfically as
related to refcursors.  The original application was based on postgresql 8.4
I believe.
...
But when I try to call the function: select test_proc(2); I get a column
header: test_proc refcursor and the value in this column is simply: <unnamed
portal n>, where n seems to indicate how many times I have run a cursor from
the SQL window.

The example you give acts exactly as I would expect, ie, it returns the
generated name of a cursor.  And it does so in every release back to at
least 8.0, not just 9.0.  So I think you've simplified your example to
the point that it no longer demonstrates whatever problem you're
actually having.

            regards, tom lane

vince maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com> writes:

I am running my test procs from the pgAdminIII GUI.� Is my syntax wrong to
execute the function?� If I run select test_proc1(3), I do get the correct
result which is a column header (test_proc1 integer) and a value (2).� So why
wouldn't I get a 6-column result set when running select test_proc(2) ?

Because those functions return the name of a cursor, not the result of
fetching from the cursor. The same would have been true in any prior
release too, so I'm not sure why you're having trouble with 9.0 and
not before. You sure you haven't dropped a level of indirect fetch
from your client code?

regards, tom lane

Tom, or anyone else working with this dB, can you respond to my question:

How should the syntax for a function be formulated to return a refcursor
containing one or more records? 

I have many years SQL development experience and work with Oracle in my current
position.  I'm not a novice programmer.

My functions all worked prior to switching to 9.0 and I can excute functions
from the pgAdminIII UI which return an individual result, such as an integer,
but cannot test/troubleshoot those which use refcursors in the same manner; and
they are not working within my application.  They used to work.

I've provided test data and functions for your inspection and validation.  Even
pointing me to some substantial documentation (white paper or actual book) that
contains bonafide examples of how to write postgresql functions would probably
help.  But simply providing syntax segments is not working,  I've not come
across any examples that I can translate or compare with my existing efforts.

According to your documentation, new releases should be backward compatible;
other than for specific elements.  I would think this particular functionality
should be backward compatible but as I'm finding it not to be, please take some
time to investigate and validate for yourselves what I have communicated.

I really do think postgreSQL is a great database from a development
perspective.  If I can get over this issue, perhaps I can provide some
documentation which others can use to create their own functions.

thank you for your assistance.

----- Original Message ----
From: vince maxey vamax27@yahoo.com
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Me Yahoo <vamax27@yahoo.com>; pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org
Sent: Sat, November 13, 2010 3:44:03 PM
Subject: Re: [BUGS] BUG #5753: Existing Functions No Longer Work

Thanks for your response, Tom.

I guess my question would be, what needs to change in my syntax to expect to get

one row returned?

Here are a couple of examples that do work in my existing application prior to
my recent computer switch and re-build (and I have well over 100 of these types
of functions defined, some more complex than others, but I figured a simple
example would help someone else to most easily be able to help me).

-- Function: dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint)
-- DROP FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint)
  RETURNS refcursor AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
 
 loc refcursor;
BEGIN
 open loc for
  select * from dimension.location_holiday where holidayid = $1; 
 return loc;
END;
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE
  COST 100;
ALTER FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint) OWNER TO postgres;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint) TO public;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_holiday(bigint) TO postgres;

-- Function: dimension.get_location_list(character varying, character varying,
integer)
-- DROP FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying, character
varying, integer);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer)
  RETURNS refcursor AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
 loc refcursor;
BEGIN
 IF $3 = 1 THEN
  open loc for   
  select a.locationid, a.locationname, a.partnerid, b.partnername,
a.phone1,a.phone2,  

  a.fax1, a.fax2,a.physaddress1, a.physaddress2, a.physcityid, e.city||',
'||e.statecode||'  '||e.zipcode,
  a.contact1, a.contact2, a.email1, a.email2, a.activestatus, a.timezone,
a.taxrate, e.statecode,a.faxflag,
  a.ticklerflag,case when a.ticklerflag = 't' then 'YES' else 'NO' end, e.city
  from dimension.location_base a, dimension.partner b, postal.us_zip e
  where a.partnerid = b.partnerid and a.physcityid = e.zipid and e.statecode =
$2 order by a.locationname;
 ELSE
  IF $3 = 0 THEN
   open loc for   
   select a.locationid, a.locationname, a.partnerid, b.partnername,
a.phone1,a.phone2,  

   a.fax1, a.fax2,a.physaddress1, a.physaddress2, a.physcityid, e.city||',
'||e.statecode||'  '||e.zipcode,
   a.contact1, a.contact2, a.email1, a.email2, a.activestatus, a.timezone,
a.taxrate, e.statecode,a.faxflag,
   a.ticklerflag,case when a.ticklerflag = 't' then 'YES' else 'NO' end, e.city
   from dimension.location_base a, dimension.partner b, postal.us_zip e
   where a.partnerid = b.partnerid and a.physcityid = e.zipid and e.statecode =
$2

   and lower(a.locationname) like $1||'%' order by a.locationname; 
  ELSE
   open loc for   
   select a.locationid, a.locationname, a.partnerid, b.partnername,
a.phone1,a.phone2,  

   a.fax1, a.fax2,a.physaddress1, a.physaddress2, a.physcityid, e.city||',
'||e.statecode||'  '||e.zipcode,
   a.contact1, a.contact2, a.email1, a.email2, a.activestatus, a.timezone,
a.taxrate, e.statecode,a.faxflag,
   a.ticklerflag,case when a.ticklerflag = 't' then 'YES' else 'NO' end, e.city
   from dimension.location_base a, dimension.partner b, postal.us_zip e
   where a.partnerid = b.partnerid and a.physcityid = e.zipid and a.partnerid =
$1;
 
  END IF;
 END IF;
 return loc;
END;
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE
  COST 100;
ALTER FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying, character varying,

integer) OWNER TO postgres;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer) TO public;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer) TO postgres;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION dimension.get_location_list(character varying,
character varying, integer) TO "eMenuAdmin";

I am running my test procs from the pgAdminIII GUI.  Is my syntax wrong to
execute the function?  If I run select test_proc1(3), I do get the correct
result which is a column header (test_proc1 integer) and a value (2).  So why
wouldn't I get a 6-column result set when running select test_proc(2) ?

My java code syntax is as follows:

 public Collection getLocationList(String pname, String ste, int type) {   
  PartnerDAO ef = new PartnerDAO();
  CallableStatement proc = null;
  Connection conn = ef.getConnection();
  Collection locations = new ArrayList();      
  try {   
   proc = conn.prepareCall("{ ?= call dimension.get_location_list(?,?,?) }");
   proc.registerOutParameter(1, Types.OTHER);
      proc.setString(2, pname.toLowerCase().trim());
      proc.setString(3, ste);
      proc.setInt(4, type);  
      conn.setAutoCommit(false);
      proc.execute();      
      ResultSet rs = (ResultSet) proc.getObject(1);
      while (rs.next()) {
       LocationVO eRec = new LocationVO();              
       eRec.setLocationId(rs.getInt(1));
       eRec.setLocationName(rs.getString(2));
       eRec.setPartnerId(rs.getInt(3));
    eRec.setPartnerName(rs.getString(4));
    eRec.setPhone1(rs.getString(5));
    eRec.setDbphone1(rs.getString(5));
    eRec.setPhone2(rs.getString(6));
    eRec.setDbphone2(rs.getString(6));
    eRec.setFax1(rs.getString(7));
    eRec.setDbfax1(rs.getString(7));
    eRec.setFax2(rs.getString(8));
    eRec.setDbfax2(rs.getString(8));
    eRec.setAddress1(rs.getString(9));
    eRec.setAddress2(rs.getString(10));
    eRec.setCityId(rs.getInt(11));
    eRec.setCityName(rs.getString(12));
    eRec.setContact1(rs.getString(13));
    eRec.setDbcontact1(rs.getString(13));
    eRec.setContact2(rs.getString(14));
    eRec.setDbcontact2(rs.getString(14));
    eRec.setEmail1(rs.getString(15));
    eRec.setDbemail1(rs.getString(15));
    eRec.setEmail2(rs.getString(16));
    eRec.setDbemail2(rs.getString(16));
    eRec.setStatus(rs.getInt(17));
    eRec.setDbstatus(rs.getString(17));
    eRec.setTimeZone(rs.getString(18));
    eRec.setTaxRate(rs.getDouble(19));
    eRec.setDbtaxRate(rs.getDouble(19));
    eRec.setStateCode(rs.getString(20));
    eRec.setFaxFlag(Boolean.parseBoolean(rs.getString(21)));
    eRec.setDbfaxFlag(Boolean.parseBoolean(rs.getString(21)));
    eRec.setTicklerFlag(Boolean.parseBoolean(rs.getString(22)));
    eRec.setTicklerFlagText(rs.getString(23));
    eRec.setScName(rs.getString(24));
    eRec.setCopyMenuSourceId(0);
       locations.add(eRec);    
      }   
  
  } catch (Exception e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
  }finally {
   clearResources(conn, proc);
  }
  return locations;  
 }

If I am not including something specific required to actually display a result
set, can you enlighten me?  How would you write a function to return a row from
the test data I provided?  I'm stumped.

Sincerely,

Vince Maxey

----- Original Message ----
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Vince Maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com>
Cc: pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org
Sent: Sat, November 13, 2010 1:03:46 PM
Subject: Re: [BUGS] BUG #5753: Existing Functions No Longer Work

"Vince Maxey" <vamax27@yahoo.com> writes:

Recently I upgraded a personal application built a number of years ago,
including java, eclipse, struts and postgresql and now face an issue with
postgresql in that application functions no longer work, specfically as
related to refcursors.  The original application was based on postgresql 8.4
I believe.
...
But when I try to call the function: select test_proc(2); I get a column
header: test_proc refcursor and the value in this column is simply: <unnamed
portal n>, where n seems to indicate how many times I have run a cursor from
the SQL window.

The example you give acts exactly as I would expect, ie, it returns the
generated name of a cursor.  And it does so in every release back to at
least 8.0, not just 9.0.  So I think you've simplified your example to
the point that it no longer demonstrates whatever problem you're
actually having.

            regards, tom lane

vince maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com> writes:

My functions all worked prior to switching to 9.0 and I can excute functions
from the pgAdminIII UI which return an individual result, such as an integer,
but cannot test/troubleshoot those which use refcursors in the same manner; and
they are not working within my application.� They used to work.

That's basically impossible to believe, because the behavior on this
point didn't change. There are certainly some incompatibilities between
9.0 and previous releases, but nothing about refcursor-returning
functions specifically; and AFAICT the example functions you provided
work just the same in 9.0 as before. So I think you're barking up the
wrong tree and the issue is something else than you think.

Perhaps you could put together a complete test case (not just the
function, but including its call) that works in 8.4 and not in 9.0?

BTW, if the gripe is specifically about what happens in the pgAdmin UI,
another possible explanation is that pgAdmin changed. Can you reproduce
a change of behavior using just psql?

regards, tom lane

hello

2010/11/16 vince maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com>:

Tom, or anyone else working with this dB, can you respond to my question:

How should the syntax for a function be formulated to return a refcursor
containing one or more records?

http://www.network-theory.co.uk/docs/postgresql/vol2/ReturningCursors.html

I check this sample for more values

postgres=# select * from test;
col
-----
123
333
(2 rows)

postgres=# begin;
BEGIN
postgres=# select reffunc('cursorname');
reffunc
------------
cursorname
(1 row)

postgres=# fetch all in cursorname;
col
-----
123
333
(2 rows)

postgres=# commit;
COMMIT

Regards

Pavel Stehule

2010/11/16 vince maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com>:

Here is my website:  www.emenusonline.net  It appears that the pg version my web
host company uses is 8.1.3

Right now this site is in beta mode, so you can register and order food
and there will be no repercussions, other than you will receive an email
indicating you did so.  (No money will be collected, cc information or anything
- use fake everything other than email address)

If you were to register on this site and then log in, the following screen shot
is of the function that would be called to determine whether you are an existing
valid user or not.  This site exists for real, gentlemen and it works; or after
you register you will never be able to log back in to the site.

I reviewed the documenation referenced by Pavel and if I'm understanding it,
this is only to invoke a cursor from the pgAdmin GUI, correct?  So instead of
entering ' select get_user_login_info('vamax27') '  I should type:   FETCH ALL
IN "<unnamed cursor 1>";

If that is the case then why is it that each time I type select
get_user_login_info('vamax27') the result increments by one:  <unnamed portal 1>
,  <unnamed portal 2>,  <unnamed portal 3>  etc?

portal  NOT  cursor

I have lots of these functions written using the identical syntax in regard to
refcursors and they all work on this site.  I know my data is set up properly
and I know my code is good.

Screenshot2 is the results of my running select refcursor_function  and
screenshot3 is the results of my running fetch all in <unnamed portal 1> and
finally screenshot4 is my trying to run fetch all in
get_user_login_info('vamax27').  These are all being run from phppgAdmin on my
web host provider's site.

With all due respect, guys, what you are telling me doesn't add up.

you cannot to fetch data from function that returns a refcursor.

refcursor is varchar - name of some object (cursor). when you open
cursor, then you can specify a name (it's refcursor), but when you
fetch data, you must to use a direct sql identifier of cursor - not a
reference.

simply, you can't to write

fetch all from function(parameter);

Pavel

/*

you cannot to fetch data from function that returns a refcursor.

refcursor is varchar - name of some object (cursor). when you open
cursor, then you can specify a name (it's refcursor), but when you
fetch data, you must to use a direct sql identifier of cursor - not a
reference.

simply, you can't to write

fetch all from function(parameter);

*/

Please explain to me then why my application works. 

You are speaking to me entirely in abstract, where I have provided you with
several concrete examples of functions that work when called from the java
application.  I also provided you evidence that using the terms in your
documentation do not work.  What am I doing wrong?

Again, I'm imploring you both:  Use the data I provided to create a test table. 
Create the function I have created (test_proc and test_proc1) and run it or
re-write it so that it works and please provide that back to me along with the
syntax I should use to make it work.

Please, prove your documentation applies to my data because as it stands from my
perspective your documentation is fairly poor in explaining how to write and
call functions, considering they are a fairly common tool for developers and
DBAs.  Why can I not Google for postgreSQL function examples?  I submit it might
be for this reason: perhaps people stay away from them because they have flaws,
either in how they have been communicated or in how they are invoked....

I've worked extensively with SQL Server, IBM, Sybase and Oracle.  I know how to
write and test stored procedures. 

I'm telling you that something is different between 8.1 and 9.0 and all you are
offering are conceptual excerpts from your own documentation. 

Please put it back to me using my data and you might get some insight into what
could be tweaked with your documentation so that it can be more intuitive and
functions used more often....

----- Original Message ----
From: Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@gmail.com>
To: vince maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>; pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org
Sent: Tue, November 16, 2010 1:14:14 PM
Subject: Re: [BUGS] BUG #5753: Existing Functions No Longer Work

2010/11/16 vince maxey <vamax27@yahoo.com>:

Here is my website:  www.emenusonline.net  It appears that the pg version my
web
host company uses is 8.1.3

Right now this site is in beta mode, so you can register and order food
and there will be no repercussions, other than you will receive an email
indicating you did so.  (No money will be collected, cc information or

anything

- use fake everything other than email address)

If you were to register on this site and then log in, the following screen

shot

is of the function that would be called to determine whether you are an
existing
valid user or not.  This site exists for real, gentlemen and it works; or

after

you register you will never be able to log back in to the site.

I reviewed the documenation referenced by Pavel and if I'm understanding it,
this is only to invoke a cursor from the pgAdmin GUI, correct?  So instead of
entering ' select get_user_login_info('vamax27') '  I should type:   FETCH ALL
IN "<unnamed cursor 1>";

If that is the case then why is it that each time I type select
get_user_login_info('vamax27') the result increments by one:  <unnamed portal
1>
,  <unnamed portal 2>,  <unnamed portal 3>  etc?

portal  NOT  cursor

I have lots of these functions written using the identical syntax in regard to
refcursors and they all work on this site.  I know my data is set up properly
and I know my code is good.

Screenshot2 is the results of my running select refcursor_function  and
screenshot3 is the results of my running fetch all in <unnamed portal 1> and
finally screenshot4 is my trying to run fetch all in
get_user_login_info('vamax27').  These are all being run from phppgAdmin on my
web host provider's site.

With all due respect, guys, what you are telling me doesn't add up.

you cannot to fetch data from function that returns a refcursor.

refcursor is varchar - name of some object (cursor). when you open
cursor, then you can specify a name (it's refcursor), but when you
fetch data, you must to use a direct sql identifier of cursor - not a
reference.

simply, you can't to write

fetch all from function(parameter);

Pavel

/*

you cannot to fetch data from function that returns a refcursor.

refcursor is varchar - name of some object (cursor). when you open
cursor, then you can specify a name (it's refcursor), but when you
fetch data, you must to use a direct sql identifier of cursor - not a
reference.

simply, you can't to write

fetch all from function(parameter);

*/

Please explain to me then why my application works.

You are speaking to me entirely in abstract, where I have provided
you with
several concrete examples of functions that work when called from
the java
application. I also provided you evidence that using the terms in
your
documentation do not work. What am I doing wrong?

Again, I'm imploring you both: Use the data I provided to create a
test table.
Create the function I have created (test_proc and test_proc1) and
run it or
re-write it so that it works and please provide that back to me
along with the
syntax I should use to make it work.

Please, prove your documentation applies to my data because as it
stands from my
perspective your documentation is fairly poor in explaining how to
write and
call functions, considering they are a fairly common tool for
developers and
DBAs. Why can I not Google for postgreSQL function examples? I
submit it might
be for this reason: perhaps people stay away from them because they
have flaws,
either in how they have been communicated or in how they are
invoked....

I've worked extensively with SQL Server, IBM, Sybase and Oracle. I
know how to
write and test stored procedures.

I'm telling you that something is different between 8.1 and 9.0 and
all you are
offering are conceptual excerpts from your own documentation.

Please put it back to me using my data and you might get some
insight into what
could be tweaked with your documentation so that it can be more
intuitive and
functions used more often....

Vince - is there any chance that you were using a non-standard
PostgreSQL distribution or driver before? Like something from
EnterpriseDB? It may be that a third-party JDBC driver was doing some
behind-the-curtains work on your behalf.

-- Korry

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Korry Douglas
Senior Database Dude
EnterpriseDB Corporation
The Enterprise Postgres Company

Phone: (804)241-4301
Mobile: (620) EDB-NERD

On Tue, 16 Nov 2010, Korry Douglas wrote:

Vince - is there any chance that you were using a non-standard PostgreSQL
distribution or driver before? Like something from EnterpriseDB? It may be
that a third-party JDBC driver was doing some behind-the-curtains work on
your behalf.

The stock JDBC driver does have support for refcursors, so that it will do
FETCH ALL FROM it and return a ResultSet object instead of just a string
if you call getObject on a refcursor value. This thread is too confusing
with random snippets, assertions, and differences between pgadmin, psql,
and other interfaces to tell what's really going on. The behavior of the
JDBC driver shouldn't have changed between releases either, but this may
explain the differences seen between pgadmin and the user's application.

http://jdbc.postgresql.org/documentation/84/callproc.html#callproc-resultset-refcursor

Kris Jurka

On 17/11/10 05:42, vince maxey wrote:

You are speaking to me entirely in abstract, where I have provided you with
several concrete examples of functions that work when called from the java
application.

I've only been following this thread broadly, but I haven't seen a
complete and self-contained test case (Java example code, and SQL
database creation script) that demonstrates the issue yet. Where's the
executable .jar and source .zip ?

When I had issues with PostgreSQL and JDBC (specifically, with client
certificate support) I wrote a simple, self-contained test case that
clearly demonstrated the problem. This meant that everybody could test
it easily, could see what was going on, and was working with the same
thing. Getting from there to a fix was much easier as a result.

Consider doing the same. I'd be testing and trying to help if there was
enough information in this thread to do so without spending lots of my
time on it - time I'm not working for pay, or doing something more fun.

I'm telling you that something is different between 8.1 and 9.0 and all you are
offering are conceptual excerpts from your own documentation.

You've offered only incomplete views of part of what you're doing too,
so I'd hesitate to push this too hard onto the people who've been
spending their time trying to help you.

Your original post doesn't provide the code that's executing the
queries, and your follow-up would still require a bunch of work to turn
into an executable test case. Tom in particular doesn't do all that much
with Java, and probably won't be taking the time to write a test-case
for you.

Even now, I can't find any mention of the JDBC driver version you're
using in these tests.

I've worked extensively with SQL Server, IBM, Sybase and Oracle. I know how to
write and test stored procedures.

Unfortunately, PostgreSQL does not really support stored procedures. It
supports stored *functions* that run within the context of a normal SQL
statement, but your function still runs within a SELECT and is
restricted in its control over transactions among other things.

The JDBC driver maps the JDBC stored procedure call syntax to call a Pg
stored function. This works rather well, though I hate to think how
it'll be handled when real stored procedures are implemented at some point.

I'm not sure this matters much in the context of your current issue, but
it's worth bearing in mind.

--
System & Network Administrator
POST Newspapers

On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Kris Jurka <books@ejurka.com> wrote:

On Tue, 16 Nov 2010, Korry Douglas wrote:

Vince - is there any chance that you were using a non-standard PostgreSQL
distribution or driver before?  Like something from EnterpriseDB?  It may be
that a third-party JDBC driver was doing some behind-the-curtains work on
your behalf.

The stock JDBC driver does have support for refcursors, so that it will do
FETCH ALL FROM it and return a ResultSet object instead of just a string if
you call getObject on a refcursor value.  This thread is too confusing with
random snippets, assertions, and differences between pgadmin, psql, and
other interfaces to tell what's really going on.  The behavior of the JDBC
driver shouldn't have changed between releases either, but this may explain
the differences seen between pgadmin and the user's application.

http://jdbc.postgresql.org/documentation/84/callproc.html#callproc-resultset-refcursor

This seems likely to be related to the OP's problem, because his code
snippet does in fact show him calling getObject()...

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company