Create Procedure syntax

Hi,

I have 3 simple questions:

1. What is the exact syntax to create a procedure?

2. How can I print something to my screen ,e..g, the value of a variable in a stored procedure.
Something similar to DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE in Oracle??

3. Also, is there any dynamic discussion forum for PGSQL, where I post a query, and anyone can reply me back and I can see the reply immediately in the forum.

Thanks to anyone who can guide me in the right direction.
Shiva.

>>>>> "S" == Sivagami <sivagami(at)worlddata(dot)com> writes:

S> [1 <text/plain; iso-8859-1 (quoted-printable)>]
S> Hi,

S> I have 3 simple questions:

S> 1. What is the exact syntax to create a procedure?

CREATE FUNCTION name ( [ ftype [, ...] ] )
RETURNS rtype
AS definition
LANGUAGE 'langname'
[ WITH ( attribute [, ...] ) ]
CREATE FUNCTION name ( [ ftype [, ...] ] )
RETURNS rtype
AS obj_file , link_symbol
LANGUAGE 'C'
[ WITH ( attribute [, ...] ) ]

There are _no_ procedures in Postgres, functions only! This syntax is
taken from "PostgreSQL User's Guide".

S> 2. How can I print something to my screen ,e..g, the value of a
variable in a stored procedure.

You can use 'raise notice' in plpgsql functions:

---------------------------------------
Aborting and messages

As indicated in the above examples there is a RAISE statement that can throw messages into the Postgres elog
mechanism.

RAISE level format'' [, identifier [...]];

Inside the format, "%" is used as a placeholder for the subsequent comma-separated identifiers. Possible levels
are DEBUG (silently suppressed in production running databases), NOTICE (written into the database log and
forwarded to the client application) and EXCEPTION (written into the database log and aborting the transaction).
---------------------------------------

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Anatoly K. Lasareff Email: tolik(at)aaanet(dot)ru
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