Re: function accepting and returning rows; how to avoid

Merlin Moncure wrote:
> On 12/13/06, Kevin Murphy <murphy@genome.chop.edu> wrote:
>> I'd like to have a function that acts as a row filter (that can
>> optionally expand each row into multiple rows), but I don't know how to
>> wangle this such that the output is not enclosed in parentheses, i.e.
>> what I'm getting now is a single column of a composite type instead of
>> multiple columns matching the original table layout.
>
> functions defined in the sql language (as opposed to pl/pgsql) allow
> you to call them without explicitly using from...if you want to
> expand, just select from your result as you would expand any row
> variable. basically, have you tried:
>
> select (explode(sometable.*)).* from sometable;
>
Thanks a lot.  You must have been puzzled that I got so close and failed
to figure it out.  I hadn't really understood the {row}.* notation.  In
the meantime I did an end run with an insert trigger, but at least I
understand this now.

-Kevin