Asking for some PL/pgSQL Tips

  Hello,

  Well right now I'm working with PL/pgsql...

  I have also faced up to the problem of returning more than one value from
a function, and an array would be the ideal thing for that purpose, but as
long as I wasn't able to find a way of returning or declaring arrays, I played
a kind of trick concatenateing all the values I needed in a Text and filtering
them in the function that receives them.
  I mean...I split the String up using some of the support functions of
Postgres (trim(), substr(), ...)

  Well, this solution has worked, but I still wonder if there is a better way
of doing it.



  Moreover, I have also a big problem with 'dynamic queries'. Basically I try
to generate a query to add a new column to a table...
  Fist of all I have to check if the table that I want to alter exists and if
it is not inherited by other tables, this is what I use PL/pgSQL for, but after
checking that everything is allright when I try to generate the query it doesn't
work.


  This is more or less what I'm trying to do...

 CREATE FUNCTION addColumn(oid, TEXT, TEXT) RETURNS text AS '
 DECLARE
      -- Alias for the parameters
      name_atrib ALIAS FOR $2;
      name_type ALIAS FOR $3;
      name_table text;

      tuples RECORD;

 BEGIN
      -- I check if the OID belongs to a table
      nomb_tabla := oidToText($1);
      IF name_table = NULL THEN
            RAISE EXCEPTION '' The OID  % doesn't belong to any table!!!'', $1;
      ELSE
        -- I check whether the table is inherited or not.
        SELECT INTO tuplas * FROM pg_inherits WHERE inhparent = $1;
        IF NOT FOUND THEN
            RAISE NOTICE ''This table can be altered'';
            EXECUTE ''ALTER TABLE ''||name_table
                    || '' ADD COLUMN '' || name_atrib || name_type;
        END IF;
      END IF;
END;

' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';


  I have tried using PERFOM instead of EXECUTE and also using the functions quote_indent(text)
and quote_literal(text), but they are not even defined in the list of functions.


Test=# \df quote_literal
       List of functions
 Result | Function | Arguments
--------+----------+-----------
(0 rows)

Test=# \df quote_ident
       List of functions
 Result | Function | Arguments
--------+----------+-----------
(0 rows)


  Up to now, I don't now anything else to do :-(
  I look forward to receiving an answer in order to go on working on this.

  Sory for such a large, boring (and probably not very clear) message.


                        Stay Safe & Happy,

                                       :* TankGirl