Message-ID: <412B09B4.1080407@archonet.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:26:12 +0100
From: Richard Huxton <dev@archonet.com>
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To: Patrice OLIVER <oliverp21@free.fr>
Cc: pgsql-sql@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: stored procedures and type of returned result.
References: <412AFEBC.4060404@free.fr>
In-Reply-To: <412AFEBC.4060404@free.fr>
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Patrice OLIVER wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm new in PostgreSQL. It's very cool.

Hello, and yes it is isn't it :-)

> I would like to know how to return a set of records from a stored 
> procedure.
> 
> For example, i would like to execute these sql command from a stored 
> procedure :
> 
> select t.typnum, t.typcom, t.typcateg, s.symurlgraph from structure.type t
>   left join structure.symbole s
>   on t.typcode = s.typcode;

Broadly speaking you'll want something like:

CREATE TYPE my_return_type AS (
   a  integer,
   b  text
);

CREATE FUNCTION my_function(integer) RETURNS SETOF my_return_type AS '
   SELECT foo_a, foo_b FROM foo WHERE foo_c = $1;
' LANGUAGE SQL;

You don't need to define your own type if you want to return the same 
columns as a table, you can use the table-name instead.

For more complex cases where you need procedural code, you probably want 
to read Stephan Szabo's set-returning-functions article on techdocs.
   http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/SetReturningFunctions

HTH
-- 
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd