Re: BUG #5644: Selecting ROW() in variable with 9.0 not compatible with 8.4

On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 9:30 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
>> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 11:42 AM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>>>>  SELECT ROW(10, 'a') INTO b.b2; -- ok in 8.4 but fails in 9.0 [ERROR:
>>>>  invalid input syntax for integer: "(10,a)"]
>
>>>>  SELECT 100, 'a' INTO b.b2;   -- ok in 9.0 but fails in 8.4 [ERROR:  cannot assign non-composite value to a row variable]
>
>> If we know the types of everything, is it possible to make both cases work?
>
> We don't know the types of everything at the point where the decision
> needs to be made.  Even if we did, allowing both would be a klugy
> unmaintainable mess IMO --- far more work than it's worth.

Bummer. Maybe we should have more-different syntax for the two cases
then. I've been bitten by this quite a few times over the years.

--
Robert Haas
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