Re: SQL-Invoked Procedures for 8.1

Gavin Sherry wrote:
> Do you have any idea about databases returning result sets from SQL
> procedures (ie, not functions).
>

As other's have pointed out, this is very common in the MS SQL Server
world (and I believe Sysbase also supports it). It works like:

<begin proc def>

select * from something
...
select * from somethingelse
...

<end proc def>

We get requests for this kind of functionality at least a couple of
times a month, and although it's been a few years since I mucked with
MSSQL, I found it to be very useful in a number of different circumstances.

It is only workable because stored procedures cannot participate in
normal SELECT statements. In MSSQL you would do something like:

exec sp_my_multiresultset_proc
GO
-- or --
sp_my_multiresultset_proc
GO

so the analogy to your stored procedure proposal holds:

call sp_my_multiresultset_proc();
-- or --
sp_my_multiresultset_proc();

I had always envisioned implementing this by projecting tuples directly
the way that SHOW ALL or EXPLAIN ANALYZE do. See, e.g.
ShowAllGUCConfig() in guc.c.

Joe