<!--
-$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_function.sgml,v 1.10 1999/09/28 04:34:39 momjian Exp $
+$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_function.sgml,v 1.11 1999/10/02 21:27:49 tgl Exp $
Postgres documentation
-->
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<refsynopsisdivinfo>
- <date>1999-07-20</date>
+ <date>1999-10-02</date>
</refsynopsisdivinfo>
<synopsis>
CREATE FUNCTION <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable> ( [ <replaceable class="parameter">ftype</replaceable> [, ...] ] )
RETURNS <replaceable class="parameter">rtype</replaceable>
+ [ WITH ( <replaceable class="parameter">attribute</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
AS <replaceable class="parameter">definition</replaceable>
LANGUAGE '<replaceable class="parameter">langname</replaceable>'
CREATE FUNCTION <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable> ( [ <replaceable class="parameter">ftype</replaceable> [, ...] ] )
RETURNS <replaceable class="parameter">rtype</replaceable>
+ [ WITH ( <replaceable class="parameter">attribute</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
AS <replaceable class="parameter">obj_file</replaceable> , <replaceable class="parameter">link_symbol</replaceable>
- LANGUAGE 'c'
+ LANGUAGE 'C'
</synopsis>
<refsect2 id="R2-SQL-CREATEFUNCTION-1">
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><replaceable class="parameter">attribute</replaceable></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ An optional piece of information about the function, used for
+ optimization. The only attribute currently supported is
+ <literal>iscachable</literal>.
+ <literal>iscachable</literal> indicates that the function always
+ returns the same result when given the same input values (i.e.,
+ it does not do database lookups or otherwise use information not
+ directly present in its parameter list). The optimizer uses
+ <literal>iscachable</literal> to know whether it is safe to
+ pre-evaluate a call of the function.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">definition</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
'<literal>internal</literal>'
or '<replaceable class="parameter">plname</replaceable>',
where '<replaceable class="parameter">plname</replaceable>'
- is the name of a created procedural
- language. See
+ is the name of a created procedural language. See
<xref linkend="sql-createlanguage-title" endterm="sql-createlanguage-title">
for details.
</para>
has the same name as the C source function the first form of the
statement is used. The string argument in the AS clause is the
full pathname of the file that contains the dynamically loadable
- compiled object. If the name of C function is different from the
- name of the SQL function, then the second form is used. In this
+ compiled object. If the name of the C function is different from the
+ desired name of the SQL function, then the second form is used. In this
form the AS clause takes two string arguments, the first is the
full pathname of the dynamically loadable object file, and the
second is the link symbol that the dynamic loader should search
code file for the function, bracketed by quotation marks. If a
link symbol is used in the AS clause, the link symbol should also be
bracketed by single quotation marks, and should be exactly the
- same as the name of function in the C source code. On UNIX systems
+ same as the name of the function in the C source code. On UNIX systems
the command <command>nm</command> will print all of the link
symbols in a dynamically loadable object.
(<productname>Postgres</productname> will not compile a function
</para>
<sect3>
- <title>Pre-v6.5</title>
+ <title>Pre-v6.6</title>
<para>
For functions written in C, the SQL name declared in
they can be declared with the same SQL names (as long as their
argument types differ, of course). This way avoids the overhead of
an SQL wrapper function, at the cost of more effort to prepare a
- custom backend executable.
+ custom backend executable. (This option is only available in version
+ 6.5 and later, since prior versions required internal functions to
+ have the same name in SQL as in the C code.)
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>