Re: Which is faster SQL or PL/PGSQL

Josh Berkus wrote:
>>Yes, I believe so (well, actually the optimizer). An inlined SQL 
>>function ends up behaving like a macro that expands at run time and is 
>>therefore quite fast -- no function call overhead at all.
> 
> ... but only in 7.4.   In 7.2 and I think in 7.3 this was not implemented.

Yeah, that's what my original post said ;-)

> While we're on the topic, anyone know any good ways to speed up EXECUTE 
> statements in PL/pgSQL functions?

Never tried it, but is it possible to use a prepared statement inside a 
PL/pgSQL function? In any case, you can in other PLs. And with library 
preloading (starting in 7.4), the first call to other PLs is similar to 
that of PL/pgSQL. See:  http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2003-07/msg00239.php

Joe