Thread: pl/pgsql function problem

I am having problems doing what seems to be a very simple thing.  All I
need is to join 2 or more variables (eg char, int, date) and return them
as a single varchar variable.

eg ret := int + char + date; or better still join("+", int,char,date)
return ret;

some additional info.  I have read in the documentation that you can
concat with the || operator.  However because one or more of the
variables may be empty this seems not to work.  If one of the variables
is empty nothing is returned.

Please can anyone help.

Thanks in advance David Mulcahy.

On Sat, 2001-09-08 at 01:09, David Mulcahy wrote:
> I am having problems doing what seems to be a very simple thing.  All I
> need is to join 2 or more variables (eg char, int, date) and return them
> as a single varchar variable.
>
> eg ret := int + char + date; or better still join("+", int,char,date)
> return ret;


Use COALESCE( VALUE, ...) to replace nulls with default values - it will
return the first non-null argument from the list of values.

Older versions of PL/PGSQL will always return null if any argument to
the function is null, so you may have to use this where you _call_ the
function, rather than within the function.

Regards,
                    Andrew.
--
_____________________________________________________________________
        Andrew McMillan, e-mail: Andrew @ catalyst . net . nz
Catalyst IT Ltd, PO Box 10-225, Level 22, 105 The Terrace, Wellington
Me: +64(21)635-694,  Fax:+64(4)499-5596, Office: +64(4)499-2267xtn709

Can someone point  me in right direction on how to solve the following error
that I'm getting while trying to connect to my database for use in pgaccess....

========================
[spiritwind@c1347127-a handiman]$ /usr/bin/postmaster -i -D /usr/local/pgsql/handiman2
DEBUG:  database system was shut down at 2001-09-10 09:32:46 PDT
DEBUG:  CheckPoint record at (0, 1522164)
DEBUG:  Redo record at (0, 1522164); Undo record at (0, 0); Shutdown TRUE
DEBUG:  NextTransactionId: 615; NextOid: 18720
DEBUG:  database system is in production state
FATAL 1:  Database "handiman2" does not exist in the system catalog.
FATAL 1:  Database "/usr/local/pgsql/handiman2" does not exist in the system catalog.
/usr/bin/postmaster: dumpstatus: