>> Why is that not a requirement for a less wordier form of IF? >> >> IF (something) THEN action > > > statement IF is a control statement - and syntax, pattern for control > statements in plpgsql is consistent. I don't want to break it (more, > probably it is hardly implemented due problems in bison). PL/pgSQL, PL/SQL, > Ada are well designed (in my opinion). Conditional statement has precedent > in PL/pgSQL now. We support EXIT and CONTINUE WHEN, so we don't propose a > new pattern, only reuse some existing.
I commend your wish to improve PL/pgSQL, I'm sorry to say that I just don't see how this moves us forwards.
It is not big step, but it open some doors
What this does is introduce a fairly restricted new feature that removes backwards compatibility and takes us further away from Oracle compatibility.
It is not valid argument for this use case. RAISE statement is not compatible with Oracle long time. WHEN clause change nothing.
If I want to write an Assert style test that fits on a single line, just write PEFORM raise_error_when(boolean expression);
it is possibility too. But a) it is limited little bit, b) we didn't find a agreement how to design it for upstream. c) I am thinking so there is a space for enhancing RAISE statement for other use cases - tracing, global condition assertions etc
which requires a very short function like this CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION raise_error_when(test boolean) returns void language plpgsql AS $$ DECLARE BEGIN IF (test) THEN RAISE EXCEPTION 'assertion failure'; END IF; END; $$;
