> On Sep 16, 2009, at 12:44 PM, Michael Glaesemann wrote:
>
>> Certainly. I was doing that to have a simple example; obviously you
>> wouldn't write a mod funciton, and you wouldn't do it in plpgsql.
>> There
>> are other case where the lack of mutability in IN parameters causes
>> you
>> to create a throwaway variable.
>
> Have an example at hand? I'd argue that in a case of a function of
> more complexity from a code clarity standpoint you'd want to assign
> to a new variable that describes what the new value reflects.
I can't say I disagree with you from a purist standpoint, but for
porting existing code sometimes it's more efficient to port what you
have without rewriting it. In some of the code I'm looking at porting,
this is a very simple example of a common pattern I'm seeing:
create function create_some_object(pobjectid uuid, psomefkobjectid
uuid) returns uuid as $$
beginif pobjectid is null then pobjectid := newid()end ifif psomefkobjectid is null then select objectid into
psomefkobjectidfrom somefktable where whatever;end if-- create the objectreturn pobjectid
end;
-Steve