help using arrays in a function

Hello,

I have a rather simple function I've been using in 7.3.4

version
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------
PostgreSQL 7.3.4 on i686-pc-cygwin, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 3.2
20020927 (prerelease)
(1 row)

This compares an integer to all elements in an integer array and looks
for a match

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.array_element_compare(_int4, int4)
RETURNS text AS
'
DECLARE
a ALIAS FOR $1;
b ALIAS FOR $2;
i integer;
status text;
BEGIN
i := 1;
status := ''false'';
WHILE a[i] LOOP
IF a[i] = b THEN
status := ''true'';
END IF;
i := i+1;
END LOOP;
RETURN status;
END;'
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

It works find

germinate1.5 =# select array_element_compare('{100,92,82}', 82);
array_element_compare
-----------------------
true
(1 row)

germinate1.5 =# select array_element_compare('{100,92}', 82);
array_element_compare
-----------------------
false
(1 row)

I'm now testing our database on 7.4 and get an error with this function
and I can't figure out how to fix it.

version
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
PostgreSQL 7.4 on i686-pc-cygwin, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 3.3.1
(cygming special)
(1 row)

germinate1.5 =# select array_element_compare('{100, 92, 82}', 82);
ERROR: invalid input syntax for type boolean: "100"
CONTEXT: PL/pgSQL function "array_element_compare" line 9 at while

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks much for any help,
Jennifer

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