Tom Lane wrote:
Sven Willenberger <sven@xxxxxxx> writes:
The problem stems from being unable to assign values to an array without first initializing the array in plpgsql.
I think we changed this in 8.0. Before 8.0, trying to assign to an element of a NULL array yielded a NULL result array, but I think now we let you produce a one-element array that way.
Using a 8.0 testbox I find that the arrays still need to be initialized:
DECLARE
blah varchar[];
foo varchar;
BEGIN
blah = ''{}'';
blah[1] := ''bar'';
foo := blah[1];
RAISE NOTICE ''blah[1] = %'',foo;
RETURN NULL;
END;Will raise notice containing "bar".
DECLARE blah varchar[]; foo varchar; BEGIN blah[1] := ''sven''; foo := blah[1]; RAISE NOTICE ''blah[1] = %'',foo; RETURN NULL; END;
Will raise notice containing <null>.
Leaving the subscript off will initialize the variable with empty braces or values within the braces; failure to have them results in "array value must start with "{" or dimension information". Also, this only applies to single-dimension arrays; I cannot find how to initialize 2-dimension arrays. As as a result, the only way I have seen to do this then is to create 2 arrays, and having one array point to each row, one by one, of the large master array. Keep in mind this is all in plpgsql.
Sven
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