Variable value assignment using RETURNING clause

Question

I try to do this, but it's a syntax error, what am I doing wrong?

declare myid := insert into oameni values(default,'lol') returning id;

my table:

create table oameni
(
 id   serial primary key,
 name varchar(10)
);

Marucci

Answer 1

You need to use the INTO clause in the RETURNING to set the value being returned into your variable:

DECLARE myid OAMENI.id%TYPE;

INSERT INTO oameni 
VALUES 
  (default,'lol') 
RETURNING id INTO myid;

You also need to specify the data type of your variable; I'm glad to see postgresql supports %TYPE and %ROWTYPE.

Considerate

i still get a syntax error, is this available only inside a plpgsql function, or is available in normal posgresql also ? – Marucci

@Omu: How are you attempting to run this? And what version of PostgreSQL? – Considerate

I have the latest version 9 RC1, and I just pasted your code inside the sql editor – Marucci

You are confusing procedural code w/ SQL. Declaring variables, cursors, loops etc are all procedural and have to be in a function or in 9.0 a DO anonymous block. – Leund

@Scott Bailey: that's the only use I could see for this, to be using within a function/stored procedure. – Considerate

@OMG Ponies: Sorry, I was talking to Omu who was trying to run individual plpgsql statements in a query window. – Leund

Answer 2

Adding to the main answer, it's worth noting that if you are doing this outside a stored procedure, you must wrap the code in a "DO" block, like so:

DO $$ 
DECLARE
    myid mytable.id%TYPE;
BEGIN
    INSERT INTO mytable (...) 
      VALUES (...)
      RETURNING id INTO myid;
END $$

Depositor