Question

This is a stored procedure I have converted from MS SQLServer to PostgreSQL. Is there any better way to write it in Postgres. Also what should be the best practices? Any help will be appreciated.

create or replace function GenSerialNo_SP1(tname character varying) returns AS $$

--declare @PK bigint
declare totalRec bigint;
declare getRec bigint;
Begin

    --set @PK = 1
    set totalRec=-1;

    for getRec inselect coalesce(primary_key,0) from STD_SERIAL_NOS 
   where table_name = tname
    loop
    open  getRec;
    fetch next from getRec into totalRec;
    close getRec;
    deallocate getRec;
    end loop;
    if totalRec = -1 then

        insert into STD_SERIAL_NOS (TABLE_NAME, PRIMARY_KEY) values (tname, 1);

    else

        update STD_SERIAL_NOS set primary_key = primary_key +1 
           where table_name = tname;

    end if;

end;
$$ language plpgsql;

Answer 1

It looks like an UPSERT, but you don’t need any cursor achieve that.

Assuming there is a unique index on STD_SERIAL_NOS.table_name, a (hopefully) correct version that includes dealing with the race condition on insert would be:

create or replace function GenSerialNo_SP1(tname character varying) returns void
as $$
begin
  loop
   begin
     update STD_SERIAL_NOS set primary_key = primary_key +1 
        where table_name = tname;
     exit when found; -- exit loop if the row exists, otherwise insert it
     insert into STD_SERIAL_NOS (TABLE_NAME, PRIMARY_KEY)
        values(tname,1);
   exception  WHEN unique_violation THEN
     -- the insert conflicts, let's go back to the update in the next loop iteration
   end;
  end loop;

end;
$$ language plpgsql;