"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > Yes, SQL and pl/pgsql have very different behaviors when it comes to > compilation and execution. In particular SQL performs parsing earlier > (during creation - just like it does for views) and links the textual query > to its parse result earlier. For pl/pgsql none of that happens until the > function is called. Because of this pl/pgsql allows for ambiguous sql text > to exist and be concretely resolved during execution while SQL does not. I don't think that's accurate. SQL functions are stored as plain text, just like any other non-C-coded function, and they are not parsed until execution. There are big differences from plpgsql of course. For one, it's possible for a SQL function to be "inlined" into the calling query, in which case parsing happens during planning of the calling query. But other than that, I'd expect the execution-time search path to determine how a SQL function behaves. Since Rob didn't provide any details, it's far from clear what's going wrong for him. regards, tom lane
