Point and function help

Hello all merry XMAS!

I'm trying to create a function that will return a point and having
little luck in returning results.
Basically I have a zip code DB complete with city, state and zip
pre-populated.

What I would like to do is create this function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.map_point(pg_catalog.varchar,
pg_catalog.varchar, pg_catalog.varchar)
RETURNS point AS
'SELECT map_loc from zip_code where zip = \'$3\' and lower(state) =
lower(\'$2\') and lower(city) = lower(\'$1\')'
LANGUAGE 'sql' VOLATILE;

And I have no problems creating this function however, I can't get it to
return any thing from my zip_code table.

Am I doing something wrong?

Here's a snippet of the zip_code table:

Table "public.zip_code"
Column | Type | Modifiers
-----------+------------------------+-----------
city | character varying(100) |
state | character varying(2) |
zip | character varying(10) |
area_code | character varying(3) |
map_loc | point |

city | state | zip | area_code | map_loc
------------+-------+-------+-----------+-------------------
portsmouth | nh | 00210 | 603 | (43.0718,70.7634)
portsmouth | nh | 00211 | 603 | (43.0718,70.7634)
portsmouth | nh | 00212 | 603 | (43.0718,70.7634)
portsmouth | nh | 00213 | 603 | (43.0718,70.7634)

And nothing returned but an empty row:

my_db=# select public.map_point('portsmouth','nh','00211');
map_point
-----------

(1 row)


I'm running 7.3.x on Slackware.

Any ideas why this is happening?

Thanks,

Andy

"Andy Lewis" <jumboc(at)comcast(dot)net> writes:
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.map_point(pg_catalog.varchar,
> pg_catalog.varchar, pg_catalog.varchar)
> RETURNS point AS
> 'SELECT map_loc from zip_code where zip = \'$3\' and lower(state) =
> lower(\'$2\') and lower(city) = lower(\'$1\')'
> LANGUAGE 'sql' VOLATILE;

You don't want to quote the parameter references --- what you've got
there is simple literal constants '$3' etc. Try

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.map_point(pg_catalog.varchar,
pg_catalog.varchar, pg_catalog.varchar)
RETURNS point AS
'SELECT map_loc from zip_code where zip = $3 and lower(state) =
lower($2) and lower(city) = lower($1)'
LANGUAGE 'sql' VOLATILE;

Also, I can't see any reason why this function needs to be VOLATILE;
STABLE should be enough, no?

regards, tom lane

Thanks Tom, worked like a charm.

Appreciate your time on Christmas day!

Best Regards and Merry Christmas to all.

Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us]
Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2003 10:44 AM
To: Andy Lewis
Cc: pgsql-sql(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: [SQL] Point and function help

"Andy Lewis" <jumboc(at)comcast(dot)net> writes:
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.map_point(pg_catalog.varchar,
> pg_catalog.varchar, pg_catalog.varchar)
> RETURNS point AS
> 'SELECT map_loc from zip_code where zip = \'$3\' and lower(state) =
> lower(\'$2\') and lower(city) = lower(\'$1\')'
> LANGUAGE 'sql' VOLATILE;

You don't want to quote the parameter references --- what you've got
there is simple literal constants '$3' etc. Try

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.map_point(pg_catalog.varchar,
pg_catalog.varchar, pg_catalog.varchar)
RETURNS point AS
'SELECT map_loc from zip_code where zip = $3 and lower(state) =
lower($2) and lower(city) = lower($1)'
LANGUAGE 'sql' VOLATILE;

Also, I can't see any reason why this function needs to be VOLATILE;
STABLE should be enough, no?

regards, tom lane