Re: subselects in the target list

On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 23:22 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Neil Conway <neilc@samurai.com> writes:
> > neilc=# select a, (select * from abc) from abc;
> > ERROR:  subquery must return only one column
> 
> > Is there a reason we can't treat a subselect in the target list as
> > returning a composite type?
> 
> Given the 8.0 infrastructure for unnamed record types it might be
> possible to do that; it was surely never possible before.  Whether it's
> a good idea is another question.  The syntax you are showing is designed
> to return a scalar.  It will (and should) barf on multiple rows as well
> as multiple columns.

Right, the point is, that is does not, if said srf-function is written
in say, C.

However, this is somewhat similar to the WITH LATERAL clause previously
discussed in connection with UNNEST and multisets, so perhaps it's not
such a bad idea after all?

> > For that matter, is this behavior also intentional?
> 
> > neilc=# select a, foo_abc2() FROM abc;
> > ERROR:  set-valued function called in context that cannot accept a set
> > CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function "foo_abc2" line 1 at return next
> 
> It's an implementation restriction in plpgsql: we didn't make it support
> the old-style SRF API.  I'm unconvinced that it's worth fixing
> considering that this whole behavior (SRFs in the targetlist) is
> deprecated.
> 
>             regards, tom lane
> 
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