postgresql wildcard when parameter is -1

Hi Michael,
thanks for your reply. I've seen that % is the wildcard in postgres, so
couldnt I just do an if statement to overwrite the parameter? Also, I'm
interested in a wildcard for dates. Would that be %%/%%/%%%%?

Cheers,
Ben

On 8/24/06, Michael Fuhr <mike(at)fuhr(dot)org> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Aug 24, 2006 at 09:01:06AM +0100, ben sewell wrote:
> > I have a question, when a parameter is recieved as -1 (as an integer
> from
> > Access), I would like that parameter to be a wildcard. The logic is that
> I
> > am sending the primary key for a table to postgres for a report but when
> > there hasnt been a value chosen in the combo box -1 is sent to postgres
> so
> > it would mean that that parameter don't apply in the SP, otherwise if it
> did
> > have another value then the parameter would be used to do some filtering
> > (joins).
>
> You'll need to rewrite the query to handle the "wildcard". One way
> would be with an expression like this:
>
> WHERE (param = -1 OR param = column_name) AND ...
>
> The parentheses are important if you have multiple expressions.
>
> Another way would be to build the query string dynamically, adding
> only the parts you need, then EXECUTE it (assuming PL/pgSQL; do the
> equivalent in other languages). See "Executing Dynamic Commands"
> in the PL/pgSQL documentation:
>
>
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/plpgsql-statements.html#PLPGSQL-STATEMENTS-EXECUTING-DYN
>
> --
> Michael Fuhr
>