Thread: calling a function within a view causes problems doing a pg_dumpall

Hello

I need to transfer a db form one to another server. I wanted to do this
with pg_dumpall and psql -e ....

I isolated the problem in a view. When I call a self defined function
(buildstring) the problem occurs and when I remove this call pg_dumpall
works. Calling the view with select * from viewrzumfang works with and
without the function call.

I use postgresql 7.0 on SUSE Linux

Function :

CREATE FUNCTION buildString(bpchar) RETURNS text AS '       DECLARE               list           text;
rec         record;       BEGIN       list := '''';         FOR rec IN SELECT z_u_umfang FROM zylinder_umfang WHERE
z_u_typ
= $1;            list := list || text(rec.z_u_umfang) || '','';         END LOOP;         RETURN list;       END;
' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

View that is not working :

SELECT rotation.r_code, rotation.r_name, rotation.r_z_typ,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_laenge FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_laenge,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_blaenge FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_blaenge,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_alaenge_l FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_alaenge_l,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_alaenge_r FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_alaenge_r,
(SELECT rtrim(buildstring(rotation.r_z_typ), ','::text) AS rtrim) AS
r_z_umfang FROM rotation;

View that is working :

SELECT rotation.r_code, rotation.r_name, rotation.r_z_typ,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_laenge FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_laenge,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_blaenge FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_blaenge,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_alaenge_l FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_alaenge_l,
(SELECT zylinder_typen.z_alaenge_r FROM zylinder_typen WHERE
(zylinder_typen.z_typ = rotation.r_z_typ)) AS r_z_alaenge_r,
FROM rotation;

Thanks for any help ... jr

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Juerg Rietmann
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Juerg,

> I need to transfer a db form one to another server. I wanted to do
> this
> with pg_dumpall and psql -e ....

Have you tried just using pg_dump instead of pg_dumpall?  I understand
that there were a few bugs in pg_dumpall, and pg_dump will mean less
data to transfer.

> CREATE FUNCTION buildString(bpchar) RETURNS text AS '
>         DECLARE
>                 list           text;
>                 rec          record;
>         BEGIN
>         list := '''';
>           FOR rec IN SELECT z_u_umfang FROM zylinder_umfang WHERE
> z_u_typ
> = $1;
>              list := list || text(rec.z_u_umfang) || '','';
>           END LOOP;
>           RETURN list;
>         END;
> ' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

It would be nice to see the errors you're getting when you try to
restore.  Could it be as simple as the dump file trying to create the
view before the function?  Or plpgsql not being defined as a language on
the target server?

BTW, there is a better-performance way to do the same thing you're doing
with that function.  Please browse the list archives with a search for
'catenate' -- you'll find a discussion of custom aggregates which
concatinate strings.

-Josh



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