Returning a row from a function

Hi,

This is my first experinece in writing to u. Please excuse any obvious errors.

I have only recently started using the postgres database and i would like to know if it is possible to return a record from the fucntion(both sql and plpgsql).

I tried this code.. but the reuslt i got was

create function ret_rec(char(10)) returns setof label as
'
select * from label where label_id = $1'
language 'sql';

hmv=# select ret_rec('L0001');
?column?
-----------
136449928

I also tried this..

create function ret_rec(char(10)) returns label as
'
declare
label_rec record;
begin
select into label_rec * from label where label_id = $1;
return label_rec;
end;'
language 'plpgsql';

hmv=# select ret_rec('L0001');
ret_rec
-----------
136469400
(1 row)

What is the problem and what is this value that is being returned? Is there any other way in which i can handle this?

Please help.

Also, please tell me if there is any way in which i can pass values to a plpgsql function that is being called by a trigger?(ie) this function exceutes when a trigger fires.. can i pass arguments to this function?

Regards and Thanx in advance
Deepa.

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