Question

I’m trying to create a function that returns a dynamic setof data type. The data types are all created before hand and can be called as the 4th variable.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION gethistoryrecord(text, text, text, text)
RETURNS setof $4 AS
$BODY$
declare
    r record;
begin
    for r in EXECUTE 'SELECT * FROM ' || $1 || ' where ref_id = ' || $2 || ' and create_date < ' || quote_literal($3) || '::timestamp and (archive_date is null or archive_date >= ' || quote_literal($3) || '::timestamp)' loop
        return next r;
    end loop;
    return;
end
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql;

I will call the function like

select * from gethistoryrecord('view_all_history','3540','2012-08-21 17:43:39.855852','holder_name')

Is it in any way possible that I do not have to declare the output, and not getting the error

a column definition list is required for functions returning “record”

Answer 1

you can specify output record, but it is what you want probably. PostgreSQL has relative strictly typed system and isn’t possible to write too generic SRF functions.