Error code return within function?

Hello,

I am working on migrating SQL server to PostgreSQL. I get lots of stored
procedures for SQL server and I wonder whether I can use FUNCTION in
PostgreSQL to replace it. Also, are there any global variables storing the
error code or the number of rows affected after each execution of the SQL
statement within the FUNCTION?

Also, for Postgresql function, I have checked that I can only call the
function by: select function(parms) or by EXECUTE PROCEDURE function(parms)
in the trigger
action. I wonder whether there is any other method for calling the function
which is similar to the stored procedures in the MS SQL server?

Thank a lot!
Carmen

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