CREATE FUNCTION — define a new function
CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] FUNCTION
name ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [ { DEFAULT | = } default_expr ] [, ...] ] )
[ RETURNS rettype
| RETURNS TABLE ( column_name column_type [, ...] ) ]
{ LANGUAGE lang_name
| TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ]
| WINDOW
| { IMMUTABLE | STABLE | VOLATILE }
| [ NOT ] LEAKPROOF
| { CALLED ON NULL INPUT | RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT | STRICT }
| { [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER }
| PARALLEL { UNSAFE | RESTRICTED | SAFE }
| COST execution_cost
| ROWS result_rows
| SUPPORT support_function
| SET configuration_parameter { TO value | = value | FROM CURRENT }
| AS 'definition'
| AS 'obj_file', 'link_symbol'
} ...
CREATE FUNCTION defines a new function. CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION will either create a new function, or replace an existing definition. To be able to define a function, the user must have the USAGE privilege on the language.
If a schema name is included, then the function is created in the specified schema. Otherwise it is created in the current schema. The name of the new function must not match any existing function or procedure with the same input argument types in the same schema. However, functions and procedures of different argument types can share a name (this is called overloading).
To replace the current definition of an existing function, use CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION. It is not possible to change the name or argument types of a function this way (if you tried, you would actually be creating a new, distinct function). Also, CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION will not let you change the return type of an existing function. To do that, you must drop and recreate the function. (When using OUT parameters, that means you cannot change the types of any OUT parameters except by dropping the function.)
When CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION is used to replace an existing function, the ownership and permissions of the function do not change. All other function properties are assigned the values specified or implied in the command. You must own the function to replace it (this includes being a member of the owning role).
If you drop and then recreate a function, the new function is not the same entity as the old; you will have to drop existing rules, views, triggers, etc. that refer to the old function. Use CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION to change a function definition without breaking objects that refer to the function. Also, ALTER FUNCTION can be used to change most of the auxiliary properties of an existing function.
The user that creates the function becomes the owner of the function.
To be able to create a function, you must have USAGE privilege on the argument types and the return type.
Refer to Section 37.3 for further information on writing functions.
nameThe name (optionally schema-qualified) of the function to create.
argmodeThe mode of an argument: IN, OUT, INOUT, or VARIADIC. If omitted, the default is IN. Only OUT arguments can follow a VARIADIC one. Also, OUT and INOUT arguments cannot be used together with the RETURNS TABLE notation.
argnameThe name of an argument. Some languages (including SQL and PL/pgSQL) let you use the name in the function body. For other languages the name of an input argument is just extra documentation, so far as the function itself is concerned; but you can use input argument names when calling a function to improve readability (see Section 4.3). In any case, the name of an output argument is significant, because it defines the column name in the result row type. (If you omit the name for an output argument, the system will choose a default column name.)
argtypeThe data type(s) of the function's arguments (optionally schema-qualified), if any. The argument types can be base, composite, or domain types, or can reference the type of a table column.
Depending on the implementation language it might also be allowed to specify “pseudo-types” such as cstring. Pseudo-types indicate that the actual argument type is either incompletely specified, or outside the set of ordinary SQL data types.
The type of a column is referenced by writing table_name.column_name%TYPE
default_exprAn expression to be used as default value if the parameter is not specified. The expression has to be coercible to the argument type of the parameter. Only input (including INOUT) parameters can have a default value. All input parameters following a parameter with a default value must have default values as well.
rettypeThe return data type (optionally schema-qualified). The return type can be a base, composite, or domain type, or can reference the type of a table column. Depending on the implementation language it might also be allowed to specify “pseudo-types” such as cstring. If the function is not supposed to return a value, specify void as the return type.
When there are OUT or INOUT parameters, the RETURNS clause can be omitted. If present, it must agree with the result type implied by the output parameters: RECORD if there are multiple output parameters, or the same type as the single output parameter.
The SETOF modifier indicates that the function will return a set of items, rather than a single item.
The type of a column is referenced by writing table_name.column_name%TYPE
column_nameThe name of an output column in the RETURNS TABLE syntax. This is effectively another way of declaring a named OUT parameter, except that RETURNS TABLE also implies RETURNS SETOF.
column_typeThe data type of an output column in the RETURNS TABLE syntax.
lang_nameThe name of the language that the function is implemented in. It can be sql, c, internal, or the name of a user-defined procedural language, e.g., plpgsql. Enclosing the name in single quotes is deprecated and requires matching case.
TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ] }Lists which transforms a call to the function should apply. Transforms convert between SQL types and language-specific data types; see CREATE TRANSFORM. Procedural language implementations usually have hardcoded knowledge of the built-in types, so those don't need to be listed here. If a procedural language implementation does not know how to handle a type and no transform is supplied, it will fall back to a default behavior for converting data types, but this depends on the implementation.
WINDOWWINDOW indicates that the function is a window function rather than a plain function. This is currently only useful for functions written in C. The WINDOW attribute cannot be changed when replacing an existing function definition.
IMMUTABLESTABLEVOLATILEThese attributes inform the query optimizer about the behavior of the function. At most one choice can be specified. If none of these appear, VOLATILE is the default assumption.
IMMUTABLE indicates that the function cannot modify the database and always returns the same result when given the same argument values; that is, it does not do database lookups or otherwise use information not directly present in its argument list. If this option is given, any call of the function with all-constant arguments can be immediately replaced with the function value.
STABLE indicates that the function cannot modify the database, and that within a single table scan it will consistently return the same result for the same argument values, but that its result could change across SQL statements. This is the appropriate selection for functions whose results depend on database lookups, parameter variables (such as the current time zone), etc. (It is inappropriate for AFTER triggers that wish to query rows modified by the current command.) Also note that the current_timestamp family of functions qualify as stable, since their values do not change within a transaction.
VOLATILE indicates that the function value can change even within a single table scan, so no optimizations can be made. Relatively few database functions are volatile in this sense; some examples are random(), currval(), timeofday(). But note that any function that has side-effects must be classified volatile, even if its result is quite predictable, to prevent calls from being optimized away; an example is setval().
For additional details see Section 37.7.
LEAKPROOFLEAKPROOF indicates that the function has no side effects. It reveals no information about its arguments other than by its return value. For example, a function which throws an error message for some argument values but not others, or which includes the argument values in any error message, is not leakproof. This affects how the system executes queries against views created with the security_barrier option or tables with row level security enabled. The system will enforce conditions from security policies and security barrier views before any user-supplied conditions from the query itself that contain non-leakproof functions, in order to prevent the inadvertent exposure of data. Functions and operators marked as leakproof are assumed to be trustworthy, and may be executed before conditions from security policies and security barrier views. In addition, functions which do not take arguments or which are not passed any arguments from the security barrier view or table do not have to be marked as leakproof to be executed before security conditions. See CREATE VIEW and Section 40.5. This option can only be set by the superuser.
CALLED ON NULL INPUTRETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUTSTRICTCALLED ON NULL INPUT (the default) indicates that the function will be called normally when some of its arguments are null. It is then the function author's responsibility to check for null values if necessary and respond appropriately.
RETURNS NULL ON NULL INPUT or STRICT indicates that the function always returns null whenever any of its arguments are null. If this parameter is specified, the function is not executed when there are null arguments; instead a null result is assumed automatically.
[EXTERNAL] SECURITY INVOKER[EXTERNAL] SECURITY DEFINER