Re: error on line 1 trying to execute a script using psql

Steven Dahlin <pgdb(dot)sldahlin(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> I am attempting to generate a temporary function to execute some dml with
> the following script:

> create or replace function setuplicense() returns integer as $$
> declare
> hwcustid integer := 0;
> retval integer := 0;
> begin
> insert into license.customer
> ( customer_id ) values ( hwcustid );
> commit;
> return retval;
> end;
> $$
> LANGUAGE plpgsql;

> select setuplicense();

> When running this with psql I get the following:

> Error: syntax error at or near "create"

> Does anyone have a suggestion as to what is causing this?

Your editor prepends the file with a byte-order mark ("BOM")
that PostgreSQL chokes on (bug #5398). This will be fixed in
9.0 (cf.
<URI:http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/release-9-0.html#AEN99331>);
until then you either have to configure your editor not to
save the BOM or chop off the first three bytes yourself
(with tail, sed, Perl & Co.).

Tim