1CREATE FUNCTION(7)       PostgreSQL 12.6 Documentation      CREATE FUNCTION(7)
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NAME

6       CREATE_FUNCTION - define a new function
7

SYNOPSIS

9       CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] FUNCTION
10           name ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [ { DEFAULT | = } default_expr ] [, ...] ] )
11           [ RETURNS rettype
12             | RETURNS TABLE ( column_name column_type [, ...] ) ]
13         { LANGUAGE lang_name
14           | TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ]
15           | WINDOW
16           | IMMUTABLE | STABLE | VOLATILE | [ NOT ] LEAKPROOF
17           | CALLED ON NULL INPUT | RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT | STRICT
18           | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER
19           | PARALLEL { UNSAFE | RESTRICTED | SAFE }
20           | COST execution_cost
21           | ROWS result_rows
22           | SUPPORT support_function
23           | SET configuration_parameter { TO value | = value | FROM CURRENT }
24           | AS 'definition'
25           | AS 'obj_file', 'link_symbol'
26         } ...
27

DESCRIPTION

29       CREATE FUNCTION defines a new function.  CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION
30       will either create a new function, or replace an existing definition.
31       To be able to define a function, the user must have the USAGE privilege
32       on the language.
33
34       If a schema name is included, then the function is created in the
35       specified schema. Otherwise it is created in the current schema. The
36       name of the new function must not match any existing function or
37       procedure with the same input argument types in the same schema.
38       However, functions and procedures of different argument types can share
39       a name (this is called overloading).
40
41       To replace the current definition of an existing function, use CREATE
42       OR REPLACE FUNCTION. It is not possible to change the name or argument
43       types of a function this way (if you tried, you would actually be
44       creating a new, distinct function). Also, CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION
45       will not let you change the return type of an existing function. To do
46       that, you must drop and recreate the function. (When using OUT
47       parameters, that means you cannot change the types of any OUT
48       parameters except by dropping the function.)
49
50       When CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION is used to replace an existing
51       function, the ownership and permissions of the function do not change.
52       All other function properties are assigned the values specified or
53       implied in the command. You must own the function to replace it (this
54       includes being a member of the owning role).
55
56       If you drop and then recreate a function, the new function is not the
57       same entity as the old; you will have to drop existing rules, views,
58       triggers, etc. that refer to the old function. Use CREATE OR REPLACE
59       FUNCTION to change a function definition without breaking objects that
60       refer to the function. Also, ALTER FUNCTION can be used to change most
61       of the auxiliary properties of an existing function.
62
63       The user that creates the function becomes the owner of the function.
64
65       To be able to create a function, you must have USAGE privilege on the
66       argument types and the return type.
67

PARAMETERS

69       name
70           The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the function to create.
71
72       argmode
73           The mode of an argument: IN, OUT, INOUT, or VARIADIC. If omitted,
74           the default is IN. Only OUT arguments can follow a VARIADIC one.
75           Also, OUT and INOUT arguments cannot be used together with the
76           RETURNS TABLE notation.
77
78       argname
79           The name of an argument. Some languages (including SQL and
80           PL/pgSQL) let you use the name in the function body. For other
81           languages the name of an input argument is just extra
82           documentation, so far as the function itself is concerned; but you
83           can use input argument names when calling a function to improve
84           readability (see Section 4.3). In any case, the name of an output
85           argument is significant, because it defines the column name in the
86           result row type. (If you omit the name for an output argument, the
87           system will choose a default column name.)
88
89       argtype
90           The data type(s) of the function's arguments (optionally
91           schema-qualified), if any. The argument types can be base,
92           composite, or domain types, or can reference the type of a table
93           column.
94
95           Depending on the implementation language it might also be allowed
96           to specify “pseudo-types” such as cstring. Pseudo-types indicate
97           that the actual argument type is either incompletely specified, or
98           outside the set of ordinary SQL data types.
99
100           The type of a column is referenced by writing
101           table_name.column_name%TYPE. Using this feature can sometimes help
102           make a function independent of changes to the definition of a
103           table.
104
105       default_expr
106           An expression to be used as default value if the parameter is not
107           specified. The expression has to be coercible to the argument type
108           of the parameter. Only input (including INOUT) parameters can have
109           a default value. All input parameters following a parameter with a
110           default value must have default values as well.
111
112       rettype
113           The return data type (optionally schema-qualified). The return type
114           can be a base, composite, or domain type, or can reference the type
115           of a table column. Depending on the implementation language it
116           might also be allowed to specify “pseudo-types” such as cstring. If
117           the function is not supposed to return a value, specify void as the
118           return type.
119
120           When there are OUT or INOUT parameters, the RETURNS clause can be
121           omitted. If present, it must agree with the result type implied by
122           the output parameters: RECORD if there are multiple output
123           parameters, or the same type as the single output parameter.
124
125           The SETOF modifier indicates that the function will return a set of
126           items, rather than a single item.
127
128           The type of a column is referenced by writing
129           table_name.column_name%TYPE.
130
131       column_name
132           The name of an output column in the RETURNS TABLE syntax. This is
133           effectively another way of declaring a named OUT parameter, except
134           that RETURNS TABLE also implies RETURNS SETOF.
135
136       column_type
137           The data type of an output column in the RETURNS TABLE syntax.
138
139       lang_name
140           The name of the language that the function is implemented in. It
141           can be sql, c, internal, or the name of a user-defined procedural
142           language, e.g., plpgsql. Enclosing the name in single quotes is
143           deprecated and requires matching case.
144
145       TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ] }
146           Lists which transforms a call to the function should apply.
147           Transforms convert between SQL types and language-specific data
148           types; see CREATE TRANSFORM (CREATE_TRANSFORM(7)). Procedural
149           language implementations usually have hardcoded knowledge of the
150           built-in types, so those don't need to be listed here. If a
151           procedural language implementation does not know how to handle a
152           type and no transform is supplied, it will fall back to a default
153           behavior for converting data types, but this depends on the
154           implementation.
155
156       WINDOW
157           WINDOW indicates that the function is a window function rather than
158           a plain function. This is currently only useful for functions
159           written in C. The WINDOW attribute cannot be changed when replacing
160           an existing function definition.
161
162       IMMUTABLE
163       STABLE
164       VOLATILE
165           These attributes inform the query optimizer about the behavior of
166           the function. At most one choice can be specified. If none of these
167           appear, VOLATILE is the default assumption.
168
169           IMMUTABLE indicates that the function cannot modify the database
170           and always returns the same result when given the same argument
171           values; that is, it does not do database lookups or otherwise use
172           information not directly present in its argument list. If this
173           option is given, any call of the function with all-constant
174           arguments can be immediately replaced with the function value.
175
176           STABLE indicates that the function cannot modify the database, and
177           that within a single table scan it will consistently return the
178           same result for the same argument values, but that its result could
179           change across SQL statements. This is the appropriate selection for
180           functions whose results depend on database lookups, parameter
181           variables (such as the current time zone), etc. (It is
182           inappropriate for AFTER triggers that wish to query rows modified
183           by the current command.) Also note that the current_timestamp
184           family of functions qualify as stable, since their values do not
185           change within a transaction.
186
187           VOLATILE indicates that the function value can change even within a
188           single table scan, so no optimizations can be made. Relatively few
189           database functions are volatile in this sense; some examples are
190           random(), currval(), timeofday(). But note that any function that
191           has side-effects must be classified volatile, even if its result is
192           quite predictable, to prevent calls from being optimized away; an
193           example is setval().
194
195           For additional details see Section 37.7.
196
197       LEAKPROOF
198           LEAKPROOF indicates that the function has no side effects. It
199           reveals no information about its arguments other than by its return
200           value. For example, a function which throws an error message for
201           some argument values but not others, or which includes the argument
202           values in any error message, is not leakproof. This affects how the
203           system executes queries against views created with the
204           security_barrier option or tables with row level security enabled.
205           The system will enforce conditions from security policies and
206           security barrier views before any user-supplied conditions from the
207           query itself that contain non-leakproof functions, in order to
208           prevent the inadvertent exposure of data. Functions and operators
209           marked as leakproof are assumed to be trustworthy, and may be
210           executed before conditions from security policies and security
211           barrier views. In addition, functions which do not take arguments
212           or which are not passed any arguments from the security barrier
213           view or table do not have to be marked as leakproof to be executed
214           before security conditions. See CREATE VIEW (CREATE_VIEW(7)) and
215           Section 40.5. This option can only be set by the superuser.
216
217       CALLED ON NULL INPUT
218       RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT
219       STRICT
220           CALLED ON NULL INPUT (the default) indicates that the function will
221           be called normally when some of its arguments are null. It is then
222           the function author's responsibility to check for null values if
223           necessary and respond appropriately.
224
225           RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT or STRICT indicates that the function
226           always returns null whenever any of its arguments are null. If this
227           parameter is specified, the function is not executed when there are
228           null arguments; instead a null result is assumed automatically.
229
230       [EXTERNAL] SECURITY INVOKER
231       [EXTERNAL] SECURITY DEFINER
232           SECURITY INVOKER indicates that the function is to be executed with
233           the privileges of the user that calls it. That is the default.
234           SECURITY DEFINER specifies that the function is to be executed with
235           the privileges of the user that owns it.
236
237           The key word EXTERNAL is allowed for SQL conformance, but it is
238           optional since, unlike in SQL, this feature applies to all
239           functions not only external ones.
240
241       PARALLEL
242           PARALLEL UNSAFE indicates that the function can't be executed in
243           parallel mode and the presence of such a function in an SQL
244           statement forces a serial execution plan. This is the default.
245           PARALLEL RESTRICTED indicates that the function can be executed in
246           parallel mode, but the execution is restricted to parallel group
247           leader.  PARALLEL SAFE indicates that the function is safe to run
248           in parallel mode without restriction.
249
250           Functions should be labeled parallel unsafe if they modify any
251           database state, or if they make changes to the transaction such as
252           using sub-transactions, or if they access sequences or attempt to
253           make persistent changes to settings (e.g., setval). They should be
254           labeled as parallel restricted if they access temporary tables,
255           client connection state, cursors, prepared statements, or
256           miscellaneous backend-local state which the system cannot
257           synchronize in parallel mode (e.g., setseed cannot be executed
258           other than by the group leader because a change made by another
259           process would not be reflected in the leader). In general, if a
260           function is labeled as being safe when it is restricted or unsafe,
261           or if it is labeled as being restricted when it is in fact unsafe,
262           it may throw errors or produce wrong answers when used in a
263           parallel query. C-language functions could in theory exhibit
264           totally undefined behavior if mislabeled, since there is no way for
265           the system to protect itself against arbitrary C code, but in most
266           likely cases the result will be no worse than for any other
267           function. If in doubt, functions should be labeled as UNSAFE, which
268           is the default.
269
270       COST execution_cost
271           A positive number giving the estimated execution cost for the
272           function, in units of cpu_operator_cost. If the function returns a
273           set, this is the cost per returned row. If the cost is not
274           specified, 1 unit is assumed for C-language and internal functions,
275           and 100 units for functions in all other languages. Larger values
276           cause the planner to try to avoid evaluating the function more
277           often than necessary.
278
279       ROWS result_rows
280           A positive number giving the estimated number of rows that the
281           planner should expect the function to return. This is only allowed
282           when the function is declared to return a set. The default
283           assumption is 1000 rows.
284
285       SUPPORT support_function
286           The name (optionally schema-qualified) of a planner support
287           function to use for this function. See Section 37.11 for details.
288           You must be superuser to use this option.
289
290       configuration_parameter
291       value
292           The SET clause causes the specified configuration parameter to be
293           set to the specified value when the function is entered, and then
294           restored to its prior value when the function exits.  SET FROM
295           CURRENT saves the value of the parameter that is current when
296           CREATE FUNCTION is executed as the value to be applied when the
297           function is entered.
298
299           If a SET clause is attached to a function, then the effects of a
300           SET LOCAL command executed inside the function for the same
301           variable are restricted to the function: the configuration
302           parameter's prior value is still restored at function exit.
303           However, an ordinary SET command (without LOCAL) overrides the SET
304           clause, much as it would do for a previous SET LOCAL command: the
305           effects of such a command will persist after function exit, unless
306           the current transaction is rolled back.
307
308           See SET(7) and Chapter 19 for more information about allowed
309           parameter names and values.
310
311       definition
312           A string constant defining the function; the meaning depends on the
313           language. It can be an internal function name, the path to an
314           object file, an SQL command, or text in a procedural language.
315
316           It is often helpful to use dollar quoting (see Section 4.1.2.4) to
317           write the function definition string, rather than the normal single
318           quote syntax. Without dollar quoting, any single quotes or
319           backslashes in the function definition must be escaped by doubling
320           them.
321
322       obj_file, link_symbol
323           This form of the AS clause is used for dynamically loadable C
324           language functions when the function name in the C language source
325           code is not the same as the name of the SQL function. The string
326           obj_file is the name of the shared library file containing the
327           compiled C function, and is interpreted as for the LOAD(7) command.
328           The string link_symbol is the function's link symbol, that is, the
329           name of the function in the C language source code. If the link
330           symbol is omitted, it is assumed to be the same as the name of the
331           SQL function being defined. The C names of all functions must be
332           different, so you must give overloaded C functions different C
333           names (for example, use the argument types as part of the C names).
334
335           When repeated CREATE FUNCTION calls refer to the same object file,
336           the file is only loaded once per session. To unload and reload the
337           file (perhaps during development), start a new session.
338
339       Refer to Section 37.3 for further information on writing functions.
340

OVERLOADING

342       PostgreSQL allows function overloading; that is, the same name can be
343       used for several different functions so long as they have distinct
344       input argument types. Whether or not you use it, this capability
345       entails security precautions when calling functions in databases where
346       some users mistrust other users; see Section 10.3.
347
348       Two functions are considered the same if they have the same names and
349       input argument types, ignoring any OUT parameters. Thus for example
350       these declarations conflict:
351
352           CREATE FUNCTION foo(int) ...
353           CREATE FUNCTION foo(int, out text) ...
354
355       Functions that have different argument type lists will not be
356       considered to conflict at creation time, but if defaults are provided
357       they might conflict in use. For example, consider
358
359           CREATE FUNCTION foo(int) ...
360           CREATE FUNCTION foo(int, int default 42) ...
361
362       A call foo(10) will fail due to the ambiguity about which function
363       should be called.
364

NOTES

366       The full SQL type syntax is allowed for declaring a function's
367       arguments and return value. However, parenthesized type modifiers
368       (e.g., the precision field for type numeric) are discarded by CREATE
369       FUNCTION. Thus for example CREATE FUNCTION foo (varchar(10)) ...  is
370       exactly the same as CREATE FUNCTION foo (varchar) ....
371
372       When replacing an existing function with CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION,
373       there are restrictions on changing parameter names. You cannot change
374       the name already assigned to any input parameter (although you can add
375       names to parameters that had none before). If there is more than one
376       output parameter, you cannot change the names of the output parameters,
377       because that would change the column names of the anonymous composite
378       type that describes the function's result. These restrictions are made
379       to ensure that existing calls of the function do not stop working when
380       it is replaced.
381
382       If a function is declared STRICT with a VARIADIC argument, the
383       strictness check tests that the variadic array as a whole is non-null.
384       The function will still be called if the array has null elements.
385

EXAMPLES

387       Here are some trivial examples to help you get started. For more
388       information and examples, see Section 37.3.
389
390           CREATE FUNCTION add(integer, integer) RETURNS integer
391               AS 'select $1 + $2;'
392               LANGUAGE SQL
393               IMMUTABLE
394               RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT;
395
396       Increment an integer, making use of an argument name, in PL/pgSQL:
397
398           CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION increment(i integer) RETURNS integer AS $$
399                   BEGIN
400                           RETURN i + 1;
401                   END;
402           $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
403
404       Return a record containing multiple output parameters:
405
406           CREATE FUNCTION dup(in int, out f1 int, out f2 text)
407               AS $$ SELECT $1, CAST($1 AS text) || ' is text' $$
408               LANGUAGE SQL;
409
410           SELECT * FROM dup(42);
411
412       You can do the same thing more verbosely with an explicitly named
413       composite type:
414
415           CREATE TYPE dup_result AS (f1 int, f2 text);
416
417           CREATE FUNCTION dup(int) RETURNS dup_result
418               AS $$ SELECT $1, CAST($1 AS text) || ' is text' $$
419               LANGUAGE SQL;
420
421           SELECT * FROM dup(42);
422
423       Another way to return multiple columns is to use a TABLE function:
424
425           CREATE FUNCTION dup(int) RETURNS TABLE(f1 int, f2 text)
426               AS $$ SELECT $1, CAST($1 AS text) || ' is text' $$
427               LANGUAGE SQL;
428
429           SELECT * FROM dup(42);
430
431       However, a TABLE function is different from the preceding examples,
432       because it actually returns a set of records, not just one record.
433

WRITING SECURITY DEFINER FUNCTIONS SAFELY

435       Because a SECURITY DEFINER function is executed with the privileges of
436       the user that owns it, care is needed to ensure that the function
437       cannot be misused. For security, search_path should be set to exclude
438       any schemas writable by untrusted users. This prevents malicious users
439       from creating objects (e.g., tables, functions, and operators) that
440       mask objects intended to be used by the function. Particularly
441       important in this regard is the temporary-table schema, which is
442       searched first by default, and is normally writable by anyone. A secure
443       arrangement can be obtained by forcing the temporary schema to be
444       searched last. To do this, write pg_temp as the last entry in
445       search_path. This function illustrates safe usage:
446
447           CREATE FUNCTION check_password(uname TEXT, pass TEXT)
448           RETURNS BOOLEAN AS $$
449           DECLARE passed BOOLEAN;
450           BEGIN
451                   SELECT  (pwd = $2) INTO passed
452                   FROM    pwds
453                   WHERE   username = $1;
454
455                   RETURN passed;
456           END;
457           $$  LANGUAGE plpgsql
458               SECURITY DEFINER
459               -- Set a secure search_path: trusted schema(s), then 'pg_temp'.
460               SET search_path = admin, pg_temp;
461
462       This function's intention is to access a table admin.pwds. But without
463       the SET clause, or with a SET clause mentioning only admin, the
464       function could be subverted by creating a temporary table named pwds.
465
466       Before PostgreSQL version 8.3, the SET clause was not available, and so
467       older functions may contain rather complicated logic to save, set, and
468       restore search_path. The SET clause is far easier to use for this
469       purpose.
470
471       Another point to keep in mind is that by default, execute privilege is
472       granted to PUBLIC for newly created functions (see Section 5.7 for more
473       information). Frequently you will wish to restrict use of a security
474       definer function to only some users. To do that, you must revoke the
475       default PUBLIC privileges and then grant execute privilege selectively.
476       To avoid having a window where the new function is accessible to all,
477       create it and set the privileges within a single transaction. For
478       example:
479
480           BEGIN;
481           CREATE FUNCTION check_password(uname TEXT, pass TEXT) ... SECURITY DEFINER;
482           REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION check_password(uname TEXT, pass TEXT) FROM PUBLIC;
483           GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION check_password(uname TEXT, pass TEXT) TO admins;
484           COMMIT;
485

COMPATIBILITY

487       A CREATE FUNCTION command is defined in the SQL standard. The
488       PostgreSQL version is similar but not fully compatible. The attributes
489       are not portable, neither are the different available languages.
490
491       For compatibility with some other database systems, argmode can be
492       written either before or after argname. But only the first way is
493       standard-compliant.
494
495       For parameter defaults, the SQL standard specifies only the syntax with
496       the DEFAULT key word. The syntax with = is used in T-SQL and Firebird.
497

SEE ALSO

499       ALTER FUNCTION (ALTER_FUNCTION(7)), DROP FUNCTION (DROP_FUNCTION(7)),
500       GRANT(7), LOAD(7), REVOKE(7)
501
502
503
504PostgreSQL 12.6                      2021                   CREATE FUNCTION(7)
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