To: Moritz Bayer <moritz.bayer@googlemail.com>
Cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Problem with self-made plpgsql-function / casting 
In-reply-to: <c244500b0508200754193958c7@mail.gmail.com> 
References: <c244500b0508200754193958c7@mail.gmail.com>
Comments: In-reply-to Moritz Bayer <moritz.bayer@googlemail.com>
	message dated "Sat, 20 Aug 2005 16:54:22 +0200"
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2005 11:51:58 -0400
Message-ID: <24394.1124553118@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

Moritz Bayer <moritz.bayer@googlemail.com> writes:
>  ERROR: function public.fc_editlanguage(integer, "unknown", "unknown", 
> integer) does not exist
>
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION "public"."fc_editlanguage" (id bigint, name 
> varchar, kuerzel varchar, active smallint) RETURNS smallint AS

The short answer to this is to avoid declaring function arguments as
"smallint".  When you call this as, say,

	select fc_editlanguage(42, 'foo', 'bar', 1);

the "42" and the "1" are initially typed as integer constants.  There's
an implicit up-cast from integer to bigint, so the parser has no problem
matching the 42 to a bigint parameter, but the down-cast from integer to
smallint is not implicit.  With the function as written you'd have to
cast to smallint explicitly:

	select fc_editlanguage(42, 'foo', 'bar', 1::smallint);

This is enough of a notational pain in the neck that it's easier just to
declare the argument as integer.

			regards, tom lane