In plpgsql: difference between := and = - Mailing list pgsql-novice

From David
Subject In plpgsql: difference between := and =
Date
Msg-id 20060413001926.GA4285@localhost.localdomain
Whole thread Raw
Responses Re: In plpgsql: difference between := and =  (Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
List pgsql-novice
I know I've seen this somewhere, but I've searched the docs and can't
seem to find it.

I know that := is assignment, and, from the docs, (and experience),
know that it does a "SELECT" to return the assigned value.

I was experimenting with triggers, in the body, I was trying something
like:

BEGIN
   NEW.name := get_who(NEW.name);
   RETURN NEW;
END

where get_who() is a stored procedure.

After going through some of my pgsql- mail-archives, I saw a similar
example where they used simply "=".

After I did this, it worked.

Could someone explain the why's and the difference?  I know I've seen
this explained before, but where, I don't know...

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