insert function with side-effects: how to take insert parameter? - postgresql

Question

I'm interested in writing a Postgres function that inserts a new row to e.g. an invoice table, and performs some side effects based on the result of the insertion. My invoice table has some columns with default values (e.g. auto-generated primary key column id), and some that are optional.
I'm wondering if there's a way to take a parameter that represents a row of the invoice table, possibly without default and optional fields, and insert that value directly as a row.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.insert_invoice(new_invoice invoice)
RETURNS uuid
LANGUAGE sql
AS $$
WITH invoice_insert_result AS (
-- This fails: new_invoice has type invoice, but expected type uuid (because it thinks we want to put `new_invoice` in the "id" column)
INSERT INTO invoice VALUES (new_invoice)
RETURNING id
)
-- Use the result to perform side-effects
SELECT invoice_insert_result.id
$$;
I know this is possible to do by replicating the schema of the invoice table in the list of parameters of the function, however I'd prefer not to do that since it would mean additional boilerplate and maintenance burden.

Answer 1

The uuid is a value that is automatically generated, you cannot insert a uuid value to a table.
The target column names can be listed in any order. If no list of
column names is given at all, the default is all the columns of the
table in their declared order; or the first N column names, if there
are only N columns supplied by the VALUES clause or query. The values
supplied by the VALUES clause or query are associated with the
explicit or implicit column list left-to-right.
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-insert.html
The quote part means that you insert command can either explicit mention column list. Or you not mention column list then the to be inserted command (after values) should have all the column list's value.
to achiever your intended result, Insert command,you must specify columns list. If not, then you need insert uuid value. But you cannot uuid is auto generated. The same example would be like if a table have a column bigserial then you cannot insert bigserial value to that column. Since bigserial is auto-generated.
For other non-automatic column, You can aggregated them use customized type.
denmo
create type inv_insert_template as (receiver text, base_amount numeric,tax_rate numeric);
full function:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.insert_invoice(new_invoice inv_insert_template)
RETURNS bigint
LANGUAGE sql
AS $$
WITH invoice_insert_result AS (
INSERT INTO invoices(receiver,base_amount, tax_rate)
VALUES (new_invoice.receiver,
new_invoice.base_amount,
new_invoice.tax_rate) RETURNING inv_no
)
SELECT invoice_insert_result.inv_no from invoice_insert_result;
$$;
call it: select * from public.insert_invoice(row('person_c', 1000, 0.1));
db fiddle demo