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From: Michael Glaesemann <grzm@seespotcode.net>
Subject: Re: SELECT syntax synopsis: column_definition?
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2007 18:04:56 -0500
To: Richard Broersma Jr <rabroersma@yahoo.com>


On Aug 21, 2007, at 14:34 , Richard Broersma Jr wrote:

> Can any one give an example of the difference between a  
> column_alias and a column_definition when
> using a function in the FROM clause?
>
> from the manual:
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/interactive/sql-select.html
>
> "function_name ( [ argument [, ...] ] ) [ AS ] alias  
> [ ( column_alias [, ...] | column_definition
> [, ...] ) ]"

I believe it's similar to this

# select * from generate_series(1,10) as a(s);
s
----
   1
   2
   3
   4
   5
   6
   7
   8
   9
10
(10 rows)

But like this:

# select * from generate_series(1,10) as a(s text);

But not quite, as this raises an error :)

ERROR:  a column definition list is only allowed for functions  
returning "record"

So the *form* is right, but I don't know of an example that works.

You've got me curious now, too!

Michael Glaesemann
grzm seespotcode net