Originally posted in psql-general, submitted here as a prospective RFE:
When using a row-returning function (RETURNS SETOF record) in the FROM
clause of a query, you have to supply a column definition list. I was
recently attempting to use a row-returning function in a query and
received the following error message:
ERROR: query-specified return row and actual function return row do not
match
The function in question returned 8 columns, some of which used fairly
lengthy expressions, and it took me quite a while to track down the
problem -- it turned out that a column I was expecting to be 'text' was
actually 'varchar(10)'. In complex queries, isolating a single type
mismatch can be something of a chore.
With that in mind, I'd like to submit a request, that the verbosity of
this error message be increased to explain which ordinal column position
the error occurred at, and, if possible, the details of the mismatch.
In my case, a secondary message saying something like "function foo()
column 4 returned type varchar(10), but column definition specifies type
text" would have made the debugging process very smooth.
Is this a reasonable suggestion?
Regards
BJ
