Delete and self-join - Mailing list pgsql-general

Hi,

I have recently started porting some stuff from Oracle to PostgreSQL, and am
having trouble with the following construct from Oracle:

   DELETE  FROM serviceproviders sp1
   WHERE exists (SELECT 1
                 FROM serviceproviders sp2 where
                 sp1.class = sp2.class
                 AND sp1.userid = sp2.userid
                 AND sp1.providerclass = oldproviderclass
                 AND sp1.providerid = newproviderid
                 AND sp2.providerclass = oldproviderclass
                 AND sp2.providerid = oldproviderid);

PostgreSQL returns the following error when trying to execute the aqbove
code in a stored procedure:

ERROR:  parser: parse error at or near "sp1"

I have tried a number of options, but PostgreSQL doesn't seem to like sp1 in
the DELETE clause, and if I don't have that then short of writing some code
to select and delete in a loop I don't see how to achieve the same effect.

As I am new to postgres I may be missing something obvious.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Nick Worth

I am trying to embed this code in a stored procedure/function.