Re: Use UNKNOWN with PL/Perl spi_prepare()?

David E. Wheeler wrote:
> On Apr 6, 2010, at 4:40 PM, Tom Lane wrote:
>
>
>>> I tried this:
>>> try=# create or replace function try() returns void language plperl as $$
>>> spi_prepare('select length($1)', 'unknown');
>>> $$;
>>> CREATE FUNCTION
>>> try=# select try();
>>> ERROR: error from Perl function "try": failed to find conversion function from unknown to text at line 2.
>>>
>> Why would you think this is useful, considering that plperl has no
>> concept of SQL data types? Everything you could pass to
>> spi_exec_prepared is effectively text, no?
>>
>
> try=# create or replace function try() returns void language plperl as $$
> spi_prepare('select abs($1)', 'text');
> $$;
> CREATE FUNCTION
> try=# select try();
> ERROR: error from Perl function "try": function abs(text) does not exist at line 2.
>
>
>

Indeed it doesn't. But (as documented) the argument will be passed
*from* *perl* as text and converted to the specified type in the glue
code. See plperl.c for details.

cheers

andrew