Re: function SETOF return type with variable columns?

Hello

2008/8/20 James Neff <james(dot)neff(at)tethyshealth(dot)com>:
> Greetings,
>
> Is it possible to have a function with a return type of SETOF that has
> variable number of return columns?
>

No. Number and result types have to be known in parse time. Use array
without it.

> The input parameter for this function will be a String containing a number
> of codes separated by a tilde character. I would like to have 1 output
> column for each of these codes, but the number of input codes may change for
> each time the function is called.
>
> For example:
>
> Input: ABC1~XYZ2~MNO3
>

simply string_to_array('ABC1~XYZ2~MNO3', '~');

>
> Output result set will then look like this where name, ABC1, XYZ2, and MNO3
> are column headers and not a data row:
>
> name | ABC1 | XYZ2 | MNO3
> bob | 9 | 3 | 1
> john | 5 | 2 | 1
> ...
>
>
> Every row in the output set will contain a name and then a count of the
> number of codes matched for that name. But the codes queried for would
> change with each call of the function.
> Does it make sense what I am asking for?

it has sense, but postgresql doesn't support this feature
Regards
Pavel Stehule

>
> Thanks in advance,
> James
>
>
>
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