Can I User @@error of MS SQL in postgresql

PostgreSQL is much more strict about error handling. MSSQLServer will continue merrily along without interrupting the procedure or affecting the in-progress transaction if errors occur. It is up to you to catch them and decide how to handle them. PGSQL will ignore all further queries and roll back the transaction automatically if any errors are returned from a query. In other words, you don't have to worry about it. If there are cases where the action failing would be OK, you need to test for those cases (i.e. duplicate key already exists) before the action. Keep in mind that those checks will not always be valid given the status of other transactions and your isolation level.

Isn't this fun?

Ian Harding
Programmer/Analyst II
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
iharding@tpchd.org
(253) 798-3549

"annachau" <annachau@hongkong.com> 12/05/02 11:13PM >>>

I have a plpgsql function to insert a record into a table. In MS SQL, I can user @@error to check the insert action is completed or not. What can I do in postgresql?
Thanks a lot.

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On Fri, Dec 06, 2002 at 06:52:14AM -0800, Ian Harding wrote:

PostgreSQL is much more strict about error handling. MSSQLServer will
continue merrily along without interrupting the procedure or affecting
the in-progress transaction if errors occur. It is up to you to catch
them and decide how to handle them. PGSQL will ignore all further
queries and roll back the transaction automatically if any errors are
returned from a query. In other words, you don't have to worry about
it. If there are cases where the action failing would be OK, you need
to test for those cases (i.e. duplicate key already exists) before the
action. Keep in mind that those checks will not always be valid given
the status of other transactions and your isolation level.

Given that some ODBC apps don't fully expose the PG error message
(Access, for instance, can either show you a dialog box w/the PG error
message, or give you a generic error code that you app can act on, but
not both), it would would be helpful to be able to figure out what error
happened.

Does anyone know of anything like "SELECT last_error" to find the last
error on a connection? This way, in an Access error-handling function, I
could at least try to dig in and get the PG error message, parse it, and
provide some meaningful help to the user.

- J.
--

Joel BURTON | joel@joelburton.com | joelburton.com | aim: wjoelburton
Independent Knowledge Management Consultant