To: "Riccardo G. Facchini" <abief_ag_-postgresql@yahoo.com>
Cc: Phil Endecott <spam_from_postgresql_sql@chezphil.org>,
	pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: plpgsql - Insert from a record variable? 
In-reply-to: <20040619060330.83941.qmail@web13901.mail.yahoo.com> 
References: <20040619060330.83941.qmail@web13901.mail.yahoo.com>
Comments: In-reply-to "Riccardo G. Facchini" <abief_ag_-postgresql@yahoo.com>
	message dated "Fri, 18 Jun 2004 23:03:30 -0700"
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:39:08 -0400
Message-ID: <17840.1087670348@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

"Riccardo G. Facchini" <abief_ag_-postgresql@yahoo.com> writes:
> --- Phil Endecott <__> wrote:
>> I'm writing a simple plpgsql function that selects a row from a
>> table, modifies it slightly, and inserts the modified version.  This
>> sounds simple, but I can't find how to do the insert in a simple
>> generic fashion: although SELECT has a form that puts the result in a
>> record variable, INSERT doesn't seem to have anything similar.

> I'm not sure if it will work, but have you tried [snip]

> declare r record;
>   insert into table select r.*;

I don't know of any way to handle this in existing releases ---
plpgsql's support for rowtype variables is just too limited.
However, in 7.5 you will be able to do either of

	insert into table select r.*;
	insert into table values(r.*);

so long as r is declared to be of a named rowtype (not just RECORD;
that doesn't have a known field list to plan the query with).  For
instance I was just experimenting with this test case:

create or replace function fooey(int) returns void as '
declare r foo;
begin
  select * into r from foo where id = $1;
  r.f1 = ''baz'';
  insert into foo select r.*;
  return;
end' language plpgsql;

			regards, tom lane