Deleting a row with dynamic SQL in a procedure - postgresql

How to delete a row in a stored procedure in PostgreSQL with dynamic table and column names?
delete_word will be the one that should be deleted.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE delete_row(tablename VARCHAR(255),columnname VARCHAR(255), delete_word VARCHAR(255))
language plpgsql
as $$
BEGIN
EXECUTE 'DELETE FROM ' || quote_ident(tablename) || ' WHERE ' || columnname || ' = ' || quote_ident(delete_word);
END $$;
CALL delete_row('sales_2019','orderid', 'Order ID');

Handling dynamic SQL properly:
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE delete_row(tablename text, columnname text, delete_word text)
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS
$proc$
DECLARE
_sql text := format('DELETE FROM %I WHERE %I = $1', $1, $2);
BEGIN
-- RAISE NOTICE '%', _sql; -- debug first?!
EXECUTE _sql
USING delete_word;
END
$proc$;
Call:
CALL delete_row('sales_2019', 'orderid', 'Order ID');
See:
Format specifier for integer variables in format() for EXECUTE?
Table name as a PostgreSQL function parameter
How to use variable as table name in plpgsql
Dynamic SQL with format() and EXECUTE is only needed if table and column name must indeed be variable. The answer is a proof of concept for more complex tasks. A simple command like in the example, I would rather just concatenate and execute as plain SQL.
Also using data type text for arguments. varchar(255) does not do anything useful there, and generally tends to be a misunderstanding carried over from other RDBMS. See:
Refactor foreign key to fields

Related

How to call an array in stored procedure?

May I know on how to call an array in stored procedure? I tried to enclosed it with a bracket to put the column_name that need to be insert in the new table.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE data_versioning_nonull(new_table_name VARCHAR(100),column_name VARCHAR(100)[], current_table_name VARCHAR(100))
language plpgsql
as $$
BEGIN
EXECUTE ('CREATE TABLE ' || quote_ident(new_table_name) || ' AS SELECT ' || quote_ident(column_name) || ' FROM ' || quote_ident(current_table_name));
END $$;
CALL data_versioning_nonull('sales_2019_sample', ['orderid', 'product', 'address'], 'sales_2019');
Using execute format() lets you replace all the quote_ident() with %I placeholders in a single text instead of a series of concatenated snippets. %1$I lets you re-use the first argument.
It's best if you use ARRAY['a','b','c']::VARCHAR(100)[] to explicitly make it an array of your desired type. '{"a","b","c"}'::VARCHAR(100)[] works too.
You'll need to convert the array into a list of columns some other way, because when cast to text, it'll get curly braces which are not allowed in the column list syntax. Demo
It's not a good practice to introduce random limitations - PostgreSQL doesn't limit identifier lengths to 100 characters, so you don't have to either. The default limit is 63 bytes, so you can go way, way longer than 100 characters (demo). You can switch that data type to a regular text. Interestingly, exceeding specified varchar length would just convert it to unlimited varchar, making it just syntax noise.
DBFiddle online demo
CREATE TABLE sales_2019(orderid INT,product INT,address INT);
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE data_versioning_nonull(
new_table_name TEXT,
column_names TEXT[],
current_table_name TEXT)
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS $$
DECLARE
list_of_columns_as_quoted_identifiers TEXT;
BEGIN
SELECT string_agg(quote_ident(name),',')
INTO list_of_columns_as_quoted_identifiers
FROM unnest(column_names) name;
EXECUTE format('CREATE TABLE %1$I.%2$I AS SELECT %3$s FROM %1$I.%4$I',
current_schema(),
new_table_name,
list_of_columns_as_quoted_identifiers,
current_table_name);
END $$;
CALL data_versioning_nonull(
'sales_2019_sample',
ARRAY['orderid', 'product', 'address']::text[],
'sales_2019');
Schema awareness: currently the procedure creates the new table in the default schema, based on a table in that same default schema - above I made it explicit, but that's what it would do without the current_schema() calls anyway. You could add new_table_schema and current_table_schema parameters and if most of the time you don't expect them to be used, you can hide them behind procedure overloads for convenience, using current_schema() to keep the implicit behaviour. Demo
First, change your stored procedure to convert selected columns from array to csv like this.
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE data_versioning_nonull(new_table_name VARCHAR(100),column_name VARCHAR(100)[], current_table_name VARCHAR(100))
language plpgsql
as $$
BEGIN
EXECUTE ('CREATE TABLE ' || quote_ident(new_table_name) || ' AS SELECT ' || array_to_string(column_name, ',') || ' FROM ' || quote_ident(current_table_name));
END $$;
Then call it as:
CALL data_versioning_nonull('sales_2019_sample', '{"orderid", "product", "address"}', 'sales_2019');

Loop on rows produced by SELECT - looping variable does not exist?

The function is created fine, but when I try to execute it, I get this error:
ERROR: relation "column1" does not exist
SQL state: 42P01
Context: SQL statement "ALTER TABLE COLUMN1 ADD COLUMN locationZM geography (POINTZM, 4326)"
PL/pgSQL function addlocationzm() line 6 at SQL statement
Code:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION addlocationZM()
RETURNS void AS
$$
DECLARE
COLUMN1 RECORD;
BEGIN
FOR COLUMN1 IN SELECT f_table_name FROM *schema*.geography_columns WHERE type LIKE 'Point%' LOOP
ALTER TABLE COLUMN1 ADD COLUMN locationZM geography (POINTZM, 4326);
END LOOP;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';
SELECT addlocationZM()
I'm probably just being dumb, but I've been at this for a while now and I just can't get it. The SELECT f_table_name ... statement executed on its own returns 58 rows of a single column, each of which is the name of a table in my schema. The idea of this is to create a new column, type PointZM, in each table pulled by the SELECT.
The function would work like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION addlocationZM()
RETURNS void AS
$func$
DECLARE
_tbl text;
BEGIN
FOR _tbl IN
SELECT f_table_name FROM myschema.geography_columns WHERE type LIKE 'Point%'
LOOP
EXECUTE
format('ALTER TABLE %I ADD COLUMN location_zm geography(POINTZM, 4326)', _tbl);
END LOOP;
END
$func$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Note how I use a simple text variable to simplify matters. You don't need the record to begin with.
If it's a one-time operation, use a DO command instead of creating a function:
DO
$do$
BEGIN
EXECUTE (
SELECT string_agg(
format(
'ALTER TABLE %I ADD COLUMN location_zm geography(POINTZM, 4326);'
, f_table_name)
, E'\n')
FROM myschema.geography_columns
WHERE type LIKE 'Point%'
);
END
$do$;
This is concatenating a single string comprised of all commands (separated with ;) for a single EXECUTE.
Or, especially while you are not familiar with plpgsql and dynamic SQL, just generate the commands, copy/paste the result and execute as 2nd step:
SELECT 'ALTER TABLE '
|| quote_ident(f_table_name)
|| ' ADD COLUMN locationZM geography(POINTZM, 4326);'
FROM myschema.geography_columns
WHERE type LIKE 'Point%';
(Demonstrating quote_ident() this time.)
Related:
Table name as a PostgreSQL function parameter
Aside: Unquoted CaMeL-case identifiers like locationZM or your function name addlocationZM may not be such a good idea:
Are PostgreSQL column names case-sensitive?

How to delimit PostgreSQL trigger procedure name?

For example, in Perl you delimit a variable like so:
${foo}_bar
I have a trigger in PostgreSQL borrowed from here that I am trying to make generic to work with multiple tables. Here's my code:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION update_parent_path() RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
DECLARE
PATH ltree;
BEGIN
IF NEW.parent_id IS NULL THEN
NEW.parent_path = 'root'::ltree;
ELSEIF TG_OP = 'INSERT' OR OLD.parent_id IS NULL OR OLD.parent_id != NEW.parent_id THEN
SELECT parent_path || TG_TABLE_NAME_id::text FROM TG_TABLE_NAME WHERE TG_TABLE_NAME_id = NEW.parent_id INTO PATH;
IF PATH IS NULL THEN
RAISE EXCEPTION 'Invalid parent_id %', NEW.parent_id;
END IF;
NEW.parent_path = PATH;
END IF;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Each table that I am using this trigger against has a primary key like table_id (e.g., skill_id, level_id, etc). What I am trying to do is say WHERE skill_id = NEW.parent_id (for whatever table it's called against), thus the reason I am saying WHERE TG_TABLE_NAME_id = NEW.parent_id. What I'm wondering is how do I delimit TG_TABLE_NAME (trigger procedure) from _id?
Or, is there a better way to do this? Maybe I'm just going about this all wrong.
PLpgSQL has one fundamental rule - plpgsql variable cannot be used as table name or column name in embedded SQL. But there are a dynamic SQL - next way, how to execute SQL query. Dynamic SQL is a query generated in runtime from string (or string expression). There a PLpgSQL variable can be used everywhere. So your query fragment:
SELECT TG_TABLE_NAME_id::text FROM TG_TABLE_NAME ...
is wrong in more points, and should not work ever. But the dynamic query (PLpgSQL statement EXECUTE) should to work
EXECUTE format('SELECT %I FROM %I ...',
TG_TABLE_NAME || '_id', TG_TABLE_NAME) INTO path;
Related documentation: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/plpgsql-statements.html#PLPGSQL-STATEMENTS-EXECUTING-DYN

PL/pgSQL Looping through multiple schema, tables and rows

I have a database with multiple identical schemas. There is a number of tables all named 'tran_...' in each schema. I want to loop through all 'tran_' tables in all schemas and pull out records that fall within a specific date range. This is the code I have so far:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public."configChanges"(starttime timestamp, endtime timestamp)
RETURNS SETOF character varying AS
$BODY$DECLARE
tbl_row RECORD;
tbl_name VARCHAR(50);
tran_row RECORD;
out_record VARCHAR(200);
BEGIN
FOR tbl_row IN
SELECT * FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname LIKE 'ivr%' AND tablename LIKE 'tran_%'
LOOP
tbl_name := tbl_row.schemaname || '.' || tbl_row.tablename;
FOR tran_row IN
SELECT * FROM tbl_name
WHERE ch_edit_date >= starttime AND ch_edit_date <= endtime
LOOP
out_record := tbl_name || ' ' || tran_row.ch_field_name;
RETURN NEXT out_record;
END LOOP;
END LOOP;
RETURN;
END;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
When I attempt to run this, I get:
ERROR: relation "tbl_name" does not exist
LINE 1: SELECT * FROM tbl_name WHERE ch_edit_date >= starttime AND c...
#Pavel already provided a fix for your basic error.
However, since your tbl_name is actually schema-qualified (two separate identifiers in : schema.table), it cannot be escaped as a whole with %I in format(). You have to escape each identifier individually.
Aside from that, I suggest a different approach. The outer loop is necessary, but the inner loop can be replaced with a simpler and more efficient set-based approach:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.config_changes(_start timestamp, _end timestamp)
RETURNS SETOF text AS
$func$
DECLARE
_tbl text;
BEGIN
FOR _tbl IN
SELECT quote_ident(schemaname) || '.' || quote_ident(tablename)
FROM pg_tables
WHERE schemaname LIKE 'ivr%'
AND tablename LIKE 'tran_%'
LOOP
RETURN QUERY EXECUTE format (
$$
SELECT %1$L || ' ' || ch_field_name
FROM %1$s
WHERE ch_edit_date BETWEEN $1 AND $2
$$, _tbl
)
USING _start, _end;
END LOOP;
RETURN;
END
$func$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
You have to use dynamic SQL to parametrize identifiers (or code), like #Pavel already told you. With RETURN QUERY EXECUTE you can return the result of a dynamic query directly. Examples:
Return SETOF rows from PostgreSQL function
Refactor a PL/pgSQL function to return the output of various SELECT queries
Remember that identifiers have to be treated as unsafe user input in dynamic SQL and must always be sanitized to avoid syntax errors and SQL injection:
Table name as a PostgreSQL function parameter
Note how I escape table and schema separately:
quote_ident(schemaname) || '.' || quote_ident(tablename)
Consequently I just use %s to insert the already escaped table name in the later query. And %L to escape it a string literal for output.
I like to prepend parameter and variable names with _ to avoid naming conflicts with column names. No other special meaning.
There is a slight difference compared to your original function. This one returns an escaped identifier (double-quoted only where necessary) as table name, e.g.:
"WeIRD name"
instead of
WeIRD name
Much simpler yet
If possible, use inheritance to obviate the need for above function altogether. Complete example:
Select (retrieve) all records from multiple schemas using Postgres
You cannot use a plpgsql variable as SQL table name or SQL column name. In this case you have to use dynamic SQL:
FOR tran_row IN
EXECUTE format('SELECT * FROM %I
WHERE ch_edit_date >= starttime AND ch_edit_date <= endtime', tbl_name)
LOOP
out_record := tbl_name || ' ' || tran_row.ch_field_name;
RETURN NEXT out_record;
END LOOP;

Function to DELETE rows taking the tablename as parameter

I want create a function:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION medibv.delAuto(tableName nvarchar(50), columnName nvarchar(100),value
nvarchar(100))
RETURNS void AS
$BODY$
begin
DELETE from tableName where columnName=value
end;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;
I have these parameters: tableName, columnName, value.
I want tableName as table in PostgreSQL.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION medibv.delauto(tbl regclass, col text, val text
,OUT success bool)
RETURNS bool AS
$func$
BEGIN
EXECUTE format('
DELETE FROM %s
WHERE %I = $1
RETURNING TRUE', tbl, col)
USING val
INTO success;
RETURN; -- optional in this case
END
$func$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Call:
SELECT medibv.delauto('myschema.mytbl', 'my_txt_col', 'foo');
Returns TRUE or NULL.
There is no nvarchar type in Postgres. You may be thinking of SQL Server. The equivalent would be varchar, but most of the time you can simply use text.
regclass is a specialized type for registered table names. It's perfect for the case an prevents SQL injection for the table name automatically and most effectively. More in the related answer below.
The column name is still prone to SQL injection. I sanitize the function with format(%I).
format() requires PostgreSQL 9.1+.
Your function did not report what happened. One or more rows may be found and deleted. Or none at all. As a bare minimum I added a boolean OUT column which will be TRUE if one or more rows were deleted. Because (quoting the manual here):
If multiple rows are returned, only the first will be assigned to the INTO variable.
Lastly, use USING with EXECUTE to pass in values. Don't cast back and forth. This is inefficient and prone to errors and to SQLi once more.
Find more explanation and links in this closely related answer:
Table name as a PostgreSQL function parameter
Use EXECUTE to run dynamic commands:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION medibv.delAuto(tableName nvarchar(50), columnName nvarchar(100),value
nvarchar(100))
RETURNS void AS
$BODY$
begin
EXECUTE 'DELETE FROM ' || tableName || ' WHERE ' || columnName || '=' || value;
end;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;