On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 7:36 AM, John Townsend <jtownsend@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > There are least 10 Procedural Languages available for PostGreSQL. The one > that comes with the installation is PL/pgSQL. > > Which ones do you use and why? Virtually all the time I use PL/PGSQL. The reason is that I think that the primary purpose of a stored procedure language is to encapsulate database functionality inside the database. Secondarily I write functions in plain old SQL. With SQL becoming more full-featured (CTE's etc) the use cases I have for PL/PGSQL are actually shrinking. The major reasons I use PL/PGSQL as opposed to SQL are actually shrinking. The major reasons I use it today are: 1) Exception handling and triggers 2) There are a few cases where logic is sufficiently complex that the procedural extensions are really helpful. 3) Backwards-compatibility with older PostgreSQL versions (won't use writeable CTE's for a while) 4) named input arguments, so if there are more than a few arguments, I will use PL/PGSQL just because I think it leads to more readable code. My view is that PL/PGSQL rocks. Code written in PL/PGSQL is clear, readable, and database-friendly. While there may be niches for other languages but for db stuff, it is my workhorse. BTW, I second the point about listen/notify. I have some sample code there I can share. It's not perfect by any means and would probably cause annoyances if used as is in production but you can find it at https://ledger-smb.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/ledger-smb/branches/1.3/utils/notify_short/ Best Wishes, Chris Travers -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general
