Re: Using regoper type with OPERATOR()

On 6 October 2011 18:36, Tony Theodore <tony.theodore@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6 October 2011 12:43, Gavin Flower <GavinFlower@archidevsys.co.nz> wrote:
>> On 05/10/11 18:42, Tony Theodore wrote:
> [...]
>>> so I could use a query like:
>>>
>>> SELECT price OPERATOR(disc_oper::regoper) disc AS disc_amount FROM
>>> discounts
>>>
>>> This doesn't work however, and I'm not sure why. I think I'm missing
>>> something simple since:
> [...]
>>>
>> I suugests:
>> (1) using the 'money' type instead of float
>> (2) using an enum instedd of regoper
>>
> [...]
>>
>> SELECT
>>    i.name,
>>
>>    CASE
>>        WHEN d.type = 'amount'::discount_type THEN i.price - d.amount
>>        WHEN d.type = 'fraction'::discount_type THEN i.price * d.fraction
>>        ELSE i.price
>>    END AS "displayed price"
>> FROM
>>    item i LEFT JOIN discount d ON (i.discount_id = d.id)
>> ORDER BY
>>    i.name
>
> Hi Gavin, thanks for the suggestion - after thinking about it some
> more, what I'm actually trying to do is avoid predefined CASE
> statements (and enums). More generally, I'm looking for a general way
> to do function/operator lookups so it's possible to specify/modify the
> logic of certain calculations easily.
>
> I found the "Executing Dynamic Commands" docs and a function such as:
>
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION var_op(left_ double precision, right_
> double precision, operator_ text)
>  RETURNS double precision AS
> $$
> DECLARE result double precision;
> BEGIN
>    EXECUTE 'SELECT $1 OPERATOR(' || operator_::regoperator::regoper || ') $2'
>    INTO result
>    USING left_, right_;
>    RETURN result;
> END;
> $$
>  LANGUAGE plpgsql;
>
> will achieve the result I'm after - but I'm not sure if this is a good idea.

Actually, it performs very poorly - I'll go with the CASE statement.

Cheers,

Tony