Re: scripts in Postgres

Yes, pl/pgsql needs to be written as a function. If you want to "script"
things, that is done in SQL or via one of the interfaces for perl, python,
java, etc. You can just do the DROP TABLE, ignore the error message if the
table doesn't exist, and then create the table. The documenation is quite
good, so check out:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/interactive/server-programming.html

for many examples.

Sean

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Bryden" <postgresql(at)bryden(dot)co(dot)za>
To: "pgsql" <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2005 7:21 AM
Subject: [GENERAL] scripts in Postgres

> Hi
>
> I am fairly new to Postgres and am struggling to understand one concept.
> If
> I wish to use pl/pgsql, must it be in a function?
> An example of where I would not want it to be in a function is:
>
> I have a CREATE TABLE statement that I want to execute. But the script
> must
> first check for the existence of the table. I wrote the following code,
> but
> it errors on the first word (IF). Please tell me how to do this:
>
>
> IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_Name =
> 'tb_Messages')
> DROP TABLE tb_Messages;
>
> CREATE TABLE tb_Messages (
> MessageID bigserial PRIMARY KEY,
> From varchar(255),
> To varchar(255),
> DateSent timestamp not null DEFAULT current_timestamp,
> Subject varchar(255) NULL,
> MessageBody Text null,
> IsRead smallint default 0,
> DeleteFlag smallint default 0,
> AdditionalInfo int NULL,
> ReplyToMessage bigint NULL
>
> ) WITHOUT OIDS;
>
> Thanks
> Craig
>
>
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