Control Structures

Control structures are probably the most useful (and important) part of PL/pgSQL. With PL/pgSQL's control structures, you can manipulate PostgreSQL™ data in a very flexible and powerful way.

There are two commands available that allow you to return data from a function: RETURN and RETURN NEXT.

RETURN NEXT expression;
RETURN QUERY query;
RETURN QUERY EXECUTE command-string [ USING expression [, ... ] ];

When a PL/pgSQL function is declared to return SETOF sometype, the procedure to follow is slightly different. In that case, the individual items to return are specified by a sequence of RETURN NEXT or RETURN QUERY commands, and then a final RETURN command with no argument is used to indicate that the function has finished executing. RETURN NEXT can be used with both scalar and composite data types; with a composite result type, an entire table of results will be returned. RETURN QUERY appends the results of executing a query to the function's result set. RETURN NEXT and RETURN QUERY can be freely intermixed in a single set-returning function, in which case their results will be concatenated.

RETURN NEXT and RETURN QUERY do not actually return from the function — they simply append zero or more rows to the function's result set. Execution then continues with the next statement in the PL/pgSQL function. As successive RETURN NEXT or RETURN QUERY commands are executed, the result set is built up. A final RETURN, which should have no argument, causes control to exit the function (or you can just let control reach the end of the function).

RETURN QUERY has a variant RETURN QUERY EXECUTE, which specifies the query to be executed dynamically. Parameter expressions can be inserted into the computed query string via USING, in just the same way as in the EXECUTE command.

If you declared the function with output parameters, write just RETURN NEXT with no expression. On each execution, the current values of the output parameter variable(s) will be saved for eventual return as a row of the result. Note that you must declare the function as returning SETOF record when there are multiple output parameters, or SETOF sometype when there is just one output parameter of type sometype, in order to create a set-returning function with output parameters.

Here is an example of a function using RETURN NEXT:

CREATE TABLE foo (fooid INT, foosubid INT, fooname TEXT);
INSERT INTO foo VALUES (1, 2, 'three');
INSERT INTO foo VALUES (4, 5, 'six');

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_all_foo() RETURNS SETOF foo AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
    r foo%rowtype;
BEGIN
    FOR r IN
        SELECT * FROM foo WHERE fooid > 0
    LOOP
        -- can do some processing here
        RETURN NEXT r; -- return current row of SELECT
    END LOOP;
    RETURN;
END
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

SELECT * FROM get_all_foo();

Here is an example of a function using RETURN QUERY:

CREATE FUNCTION get_available_flightid(date) RETURNS SETOF integer AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
    RETURN QUERY SELECT flightid
                   FROM flight
                  WHERE flightdate >= $1
                    AND flightdate < ($1 + 1);

    -- Since execution is not finished, we can check whether rows were returned
    -- and raise exception if not.
    IF NOT FOUND THEN
        RAISE EXCEPTION 'No flight at %.', $1;
    END IF;

    RETURN;
 END
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

-- Returns available flights or raises exception if there are no
-- available flights.
SELECT * FROM get_available_flightid(CURRENT_DATE);

IF and CASE statements let you execute alternative commands based on certain conditions. PL/pgSQL has three forms of IF:

and two forms of CASE:

With the LOOP, EXIT, CONTINUE, WHILE, FOR, and FOREACH statements, you can arrange for your PL/pgSQL function to repeat a series of commands.

Using a different type of FOR loop, you can iterate through the results of a query and manipulate that data accordingly. The syntax is:

[ <<label>> ]
FOR target IN query LOOP
    statements
END LOOP [ label ];

The target is a record variable, row variable, or comma-separated list of scalar variables. The target is successively assigned each row resulting from the query and the loop body is executed for each row. Here is an example:

CREATE FUNCTION cs_refresh_mviews() RETURNS integer AS $$
DECLARE
    mviews RECORD;
BEGIN
    RAISE NOTICE 'Refreshing materialized views...';

    FOR mviews IN SELECT * FROM cs_materialized_views ORDER BY sort_key LOOP

        -- Now "mviews" has one record from cs_materialized_views

        RAISE NOTICE 'Refreshing materialized view %s ...', quote_ident(mviews.mv_name);
        EXECUTE 'TRUNCATE TABLE ' || quote_ident(mviews.mv_name);
        EXECUTE 'INSERT INTO '
                   || quote_ident(mviews.mv_name) || ' '
                   || mviews.mv_query;
    END LOOP;

    RAISE NOTICE 'Done refreshing materialized views.';
    RETURN 1;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

If the loop is terminated by an EXIT statement, the last assigned row value is still accessible after the loop.

The query used in this type of FOR statement can be any SQL command that returns rows to the caller: SELECT is the most common case, but you can also use INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE with a RETURNING clause. Some utility commands such as EXPLAIN will work too.

PL/pgSQL variables are substituted into the query text, and the query plan is cached for possible re-use, as discussed in detail in the section called “Variable Substitution” and the section called “Plan Caching”.

The FOR-IN-EXECUTE statement is another way to iterate over rows:

[ <<label>> ]
FOR target IN EXECUTE text_expression [ USING expression [, ... ] ] LOOP
    statements
END LOOP [ label ];

This is like the previous form, except that the source query is specified as a string expression, which is evaluated and replanned on each entry to the FOR loop. This allows the programmer to choose the speed of a preplanned query or the flexibility of a dynamic query, just as with a plain EXECUTE statement. As with EXECUTE, parameter values can be inserted into the dynamic command via USING.

Another way to specify the query whose results should be iterated through is to declare it as a cursor. This is described in the section called “Looping Through a Cursor's Result”.

The FOREACH loop is much like a FOR loop, but instead of iterating through the rows returned by a SQL query, it iterates through the elements of an array value. (In general, FOREACH is meant for looping through components of a composite-valued expression; variants for looping through composites besides arrays may be added in future.) The FOREACH statement to loop over an array is:

[ <<label>> ]
FOREACH target [ SLICE number ] IN ARRAY expression LOOP
    statements
END LOOP [ label ];

Without SLICE, or if SLICE 0 is specified, the loop iterates through individual elements of the array produced by evaluating the expression. The target variable is assigned each element value in sequence, and the loop body is executed for each element. Here is an example of looping through the elements of an integer array:

CREATE FUNCTION sum(int[]) RETURNS int8 AS $$
DECLARE
  s int8 := 0;
  x int;
BEGIN
  FOREACH x IN ARRAY $1
  LOOP
    s := s + x;
  END LOOP;
  RETURN s;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

The elements are visited in storage order, regardless of the number of array dimensions. Although the target is usually just a single variable, it can be a list of variables when looping through an array of composite values (records). In that case, for each array element, the variables are assigned from successive columns of the composite value.

With a positive SLICE value, FOREACH iterates through slices of the array rather than single elements. The SLICE value must be an integer constant not larger than the number of dimensions of the array. The target variable must be an array, and it receives successive slices of the array value, where each slice is of the number of dimensions specified by SLICE. Here is an example of iterating through one-dimensional slices:

CREATE FUNCTION scan_rows(int[]) RETURNS void AS $$
DECLARE
  x int[];
BEGIN
  FOREACH x SLICE 1 IN ARRAY $1
  LOOP
    RAISE NOTICE 'row = %', x;
  END LOOP;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

SELECT scan_rows(ARRAY[[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9],[10,11,12]]);

NOTICE:  row = {1,2,3}
NOTICE:  row = {4,5,6}
NOTICE:  row = {7,8,9}
NOTICE:  row = {10,11,12}

By default, any error occurring in a PL/pgSQL function aborts execution of the function, and indeed of the surrounding transaction as well. You can trap errors and recover from them by using a BEGIN block with an EXCEPTION clause. The syntax is an extension of the normal syntax for a BEGIN block:

[ <<label>> ]
[ DECLARE
    declarations ]
BEGIN
    statements
EXCEPTION
    WHEN condition [ OR condition ... ] THEN
        handler_statements
    [ WHEN condition [ OR condition ... ] THEN
          handler_statements
      ... ]
END;

If no error occurs, this form of block simply executes all the statements, and then control passes to the next statement after END. But if an error occurs within the statements, further processing of the statements is abandoned, and control passes to the EXCEPTION list. The list is searched for the first condition matching the error that occurred. If a match is found, the corresponding handler_statements are executed, and then control passes to the next statement after END. If no match is found, the error propagates out as though the EXCEPTION clause were not there at all: the error can be caught by an enclosing block with EXCEPTION, or if there is none it aborts processing of the function.

The condition names can be any of those shown in Appendix A, PostgreSQL™ Error Codes. A category name matches any error within its category. The special condition name OTHERS matches every error type except QUERY_CANCELED. (It is possible, but often unwise, to trap QUERY_CANCELED by name.) Condition names are not case-sensitive. Also, an error condition can be specified by SQLSTATE code; for example these are equivalent:

WHEN division_by_zero THEN ...
WHEN SQLSTATE '22012' THEN ...

If a new error occurs within the selected handler_statements, it cannot be caught by this EXCEPTION clause, but is propagated out. A surrounding EXCEPTION clause could catch it.

When an error is caught by an EXCEPTION clause, the local variables of the PL/pgSQL function remain as they were when the error occurred, but all changes to persistent database state within the block are rolled back. As an example, consider this fragment:

INSERT INTO mytab(firstname, lastname) VALUES('Tom', 'Jones');
BEGIN
    UPDATE mytab SET firstname = 'Joe' WHERE lastname = 'Jones';
    x := x + 1;
    y := x / 0;
EXCEPTION
    WHEN division_by_zero THEN
        RAISE NOTICE 'caught division_by_zero';
        RETURN x;
END;

When control reaches the assignment to y, it will fail with a division_by_zero error. This will be caught by the EXCEPTION clause. The value returned in the RETURN statement will be the incremented value of x, but the effects of the UPDATE command will have been rolled back. The INSERT command preceding the block is not rolled back, however, so the end result is that the database contains Tom Jones not Joe Jones.

Tip

A block containing an EXCEPTION clause is significantly more expensive to enter and exit than a block without one. Therefore, don't use EXCEPTION without need.

Exception handlers frequently need to identify the specific error that occurred. There are two ways to get information about the current exception in PL/pgSQL: special variables and the GET STACKED DIAGNOSTICS command.

Within an exception handler, the special variable SQLSTATE contains the error code that corresponds to the exception that was raised (refer to Table A.1, “PostgreSQL™ Error Codes” for a list of possible error codes). The special variable SQLERRM contains the error message associated with the exception. These variables are undefined outside exception handlers.

Within an exception handler, one may also retrieve information about the current exception by using the GET STACKED DIAGNOSTICS command, which has the form:

GET STACKED DIAGNOSTICS variable { = | := } item [ , ... ];

Each item is a key word identifying a status value to be assigned to the specified variable (which should be of the right data type to receive it). The currently available status items are shown in Table 40.1, “Error Diagnostics Values”.

If the exception did not set a value for an item, an empty string will be returned.

Here is an example:

DECLARE
  text_var1 text;
  text_var2 text;
  text_var3 text;
BEGIN
  -- some processing which might cause an exception
  ...
EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN
  GET STACKED DIAGNOSTICS text_var1 = MESSAGE_TEXT,
                          text_var2 = PG_EXCEPTION_DETAIL,
                          text_var3 = PG_EXCEPTION_HINT;
END;

The GET [ CURRENT ] DIAGNOSTICS command retrieves information about current execution state (whereas the GET STACKED DIAGNOSTICS command discussed above reports information about the execution state as of a previous error). This command has the form:

GET [ CURRENT ] DIAGNOSTICS variable { = | := } item [ , ... ];

Currently only one information item is supported. Status item PG_CONTEXT will return a text string with line(s) of text describing the call stack. The first line refers to the current function and currently executing GET DIAGNOSTICS command. The second and any subsequent lines refer to calling functions further up the call stack. For example:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION outer_func() RETURNS integer AS $$
BEGIN
  RETURN inner_func();
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION inner_func() RETURNS integer AS $$
DECLARE
  stack text;
BEGIN
  GET DIAGNOSTICS stack = PG_CONTEXT;
  RAISE NOTICE E'--- Call Stack ---\n%', stack;
  RETURN 1;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

SELECT outer_func();

NOTICE:  --- Call Stack ---
PL/pgSQL function inner_func() line 5 at GET DIAGNOSTICS
PL/pgSQL function outer_func() line 3 at RETURN
CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function outer_func() line 3 at RETURN
 outer_func
 ------------
           1
(1 row)