Postgres substring error - postgresql

Question

I am receiving an error when creating a view converted from code at website http://pratchev.blogspot.com/2007/02/passing-variable-to-in-list.html. ERROR: function pg_catalog.substring(text,bigint,integer) does not exist; #7. Appreciate your help.
Code:
WITH recursive Hierarchy(ChildId, SubRepInitials, ParentId, Parents, steps)
AS
(
SELECT salesforceid, salesforceinitials, parentid, CAST('' AS TEXT), 0 as steps
FROM tblbulksalesforce AS FirstGeneration
WHERE parentid IS NULL AND salesforceinitials IS NOT NULL
UNION ALL
SELECT NextGeneration.salesforceid, NextGeneration.salesforceinitials, Parent.ChildId,
CAST(CASE WHEN Parent.Parents = ''
THEN(CAST(NextGeneration.parentid AS TEXT) || ',')
ELSE(Parent.Parents || CAST(NextGeneration.parentid AS TEXT) || ',')
END AS TEXT), Parent.steps +1 as steps
FROM tblbulksalesforce AS NextGeneration
INNER JOIN Hierarchy AS Parent ON NextGeneration.parentid = Parent.ChildId
WHERE NextGeneration.salesforceinitials IS NOT NULL
)
SELECT ISNULL(h.ParentId,h.ChildId) AS ParentId, h.ChildId
, h.SubRepInitials, h.Parents, steps
,Generation0.salesforceinitials AS RepInitials
,parent.salesforceinitials AS RepInitialsParent
FROM Hierarchy AS h
LEFT JOIN tblbulksalesforce AS parent ON parent.RecordID = h.ParentId
LEFT JOIN tblbulksalesforce AS Generation0 ON Generation0.RecordID IN (
(SELECT SUBSTRING(string, 2, strpos(',', string, 2) - 2)
FROM (SELECT SUBSTRING(list, n, character_length(list))
FROM (SELECT ',' || h.Parents || ',') AS L(list),
(SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY parentid)
FROM Hierarchy) AS Nums(n)
WHERE n <= character_length(list)) AS D(string)
WHERE character_length(string) > 1 AND SUBSTRING(string, 1, 1) = ',')
) OR Generation0.RecordID = h.ChildId;

Answer 1

Please see Postgres docs for how to use strpos() and substr(). Note that substring() is a completely different function with a different format for its arguments.
Try this:
WITH recursive Hierarchy(ChildId, SubRepInitials, ParentId, Parents, steps)
AS
(
SELECT salesforceid, salesforceinitials, parentid, CAST('' AS TEXT), 0 as steps
FROM tblbulksalesforce AS FirstGeneration
WHERE parentid IS NULL AND salesforceinitials IS NOT NULL
UNION ALL
SELECT NextGeneration.salesforceid, NextGeneration.salesforceinitials, Parent.ChildId,
CAST(CASE WHEN Parent.Parents = ''
THEN(CAST(NextGeneration.parentid AS TEXT) || ',')
ELSE(Parent.Parents || CAST(NextGeneration.parentid AS TEXT) || ',')
END AS TEXT), Parent.steps +1 as steps
FROM tblbulksalesforce AS NextGeneration
INNER JOIN Hierarchy AS Parent ON NextGeneration.parentid = Parent.ChildId
WHERE NextGeneration.salesforceinitials IS NOT NULL
)
SELECT ISNULL(h.ParentId,h.ChildId) AS ParentId, h.ChildId
, h.SubRepInitials, h.Parents, steps
,Generation0.salesforceinitials AS RepInitials
,parent.salesforceinitials AS RepInitialsParent
FROM Hierarchy AS h
LEFT JOIN tblbulksalesforce AS parent ON parent.RecordID = h.ParentId
LEFT JOIN tblbulksalesforce AS Generation0 ON Generation0.RecordID IN (
(SELECT SUBSTR(string, 2, strpos(',', string) - 2) -- you had a 2 sitting in strpos(',', string, 2) before. I'm not sure what you were trying to do with that.
FROM (SELECT SUBSTR(list, n, character_length(list))
FROM (SELECT ',' || h.Parents || ',') AS L(list),
(SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY parentid)
FROM Hierarchy) AS Nums(n)
WHERE n <= character_length(list)) AS D(string)
WHERE character_length(string) > 1 AND SUBSTR(string, 1, 1) = ',')
) OR Generation0.RecordID = h.ChildId;