Specifying Rowtypes

So currently the only way to specify a row type is by using a table,
right? E.g.:

CREATE TABLE t2_retval (
value1 int NOT NULL DEFAULT -1,
value2 int NOT NULL,
value3 int
);

Are there plans to add another way of declaring this sort of thing so
that I don't have to add a new table to my schema for every function
that returns a rowtype?

Second, it seems that there's still a problem with NULLs here:

CREATE FUNCTION t2()
RETURNS t2_retval
AS '
DECLARE
retval t2_retval%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
SELECT INTO retval null, null, null;
RETURN retval;
END
' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

This is returning a row that (to my mind) doesn't match the type of the
table above, because it's returning null for non-nullable columns:

cjs=> select coalesce(value1, -999), coalesce(value2, -999),
cjs-> coalesce(value3, -999) from t2();
case | case | case
------+------+------
-999 | -999 | -999
(1 row)

(You get the same result if you delete the SELECT INTO line above.)

Am I misunderstanding something here, or is this a bug?

cjs
--
Curt Sampson <cjs(at)cynic(dot)net> +81 90 7737 2974 http://www.netbsd.org
Don't you know, in this new Dark Age, we're all light. --XTC