4 CREATE PROCEDURE — define a new procedure
8 CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] PROCEDURE
9 name ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [ { DEFAULT | = } default_expr ] [,
12 | TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ]
13 | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER
14 | SET configuration_parameter { TO value | = value | FROM CURRENT }
16 | AS 'obj_file', 'link_symbol'
22 CREATE PROCEDURE defines a new procedure. CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE
23 will either create a new procedure, or replace an existing definition.
24 To be able to define a procedure, the user must have the USAGE
25 privilege on the language.
27 If a schema name is included, then the procedure is created in the
28 specified schema. Otherwise it is created in the current schema. The
29 name of the new procedure must not match any existing procedure or
30 function with the same input argument types in the same schema.
31 However, procedures and functions of different argument types can share
32 a name (this is called overloading).
34 To replace the current definition of an existing procedure, use CREATE
35 OR REPLACE PROCEDURE. It is not possible to change the name or argument
36 types of a procedure this way (if you tried, you would actually be
37 creating a new, distinct procedure).
39 When CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE is used to replace an existing
40 procedure, the ownership and permissions of the procedure do not
41 change. All other procedure properties are assigned the values
42 specified or implied in the command. You must own the procedure to
43 replace it (this includes being a member of the owning role).
45 The user that creates the procedure becomes the owner of the procedure.
47 To be able to create a procedure, you must have USAGE privilege on the
50 Refer to Section 36.4 for further information on writing procedures.
55 The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the procedure to
59 The mode of an argument: IN, OUT, INOUT, or VARIADIC. If
60 omitted, the default is IN.
63 The name of an argument.
66 The data type(s) of the procedure's arguments (optionally
67 schema-qualified), if any. The argument types can be base,
68 composite, or domain types, or can reference the type of a table
71 Depending on the implementation language it might also be
72 allowed to specify “pseudo-types” such as cstring. Pseudo-types
73 indicate that the actual argument type is either incompletely
74 specified, or outside the set of ordinary SQL data types.
76 The type of a column is referenced by writing
77 table_name.column_name%TYPE. Using this feature can sometimes
78 help make a procedure independent of changes to the definition
82 An expression to be used as default value if the parameter is
83 not specified. The expression has to be coercible to the
84 argument type of the parameter. All input parameters following a
85 parameter with a default value must have default values as well.
88 The name of the language that the procedure is implemented in.
89 It can be sql, c, internal, or the name of a user-defined
90 procedural language, e.g., plpgsql. The default is sql if
91 sql_body is specified. Enclosing the name in single quotes is
92 deprecated and requires matching case.
94 TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ] }
95 Lists which transforms a call to the procedure should apply.
96 Transforms convert between SQL types and language-specific data
97 types; see CREATE TRANSFORM. Procedural language implementations
98 usually have hardcoded knowledge of the built-in types, so those
99 don't need to be listed here. If a procedural language
100 implementation does not know how to handle a type and no
101 transform is supplied, it will fall back to a default behavior
102 for converting data types, but this depends on the
105 [EXTERNAL] SECURITY INVOKER
106 [EXTERNAL] SECURITY DEFINER
107 SECURITY INVOKER indicates that the procedure is to be executed
108 with the privileges of the user that calls it. That is the
109 default. SECURITY DEFINER specifies that the procedure is to be
110 executed with the privileges of the user that owns it.
112 The key word EXTERNAL is allowed for SQL conformance, but it is
113 optional since, unlike in SQL, this feature applies to all
114 procedures not only external ones.
116 A SECURITY DEFINER procedure cannot execute transaction control
117 statements (for example, COMMIT and ROLLBACK, depending on the
120 configuration_parameter
122 The SET clause causes the specified configuration parameter to
123 be set to the specified value when the procedure is entered, and
124 then restored to its prior value when the procedure exits. SET
125 FROM CURRENT saves the value of the parameter that is current
126 when CREATE PROCEDURE is executed as the value to be applied
127 when the procedure is entered.
129 If a SET clause is attached to a procedure, then the effects of
130 a SET LOCAL command executed inside the procedure for the same
131 variable are restricted to the procedure: the configuration
132 parameter's prior value is still restored at procedure exit.
133 However, an ordinary SET command (without LOCAL) overrides the
134 SET clause, much as it would do for a previous SET LOCAL
135 command: the effects of such a command will persist after
136 procedure exit, unless the current transaction is rolled back.
138 If a SET clause is attached to a procedure, then that procedure
139 cannot execute transaction control statements (for example,
140 COMMIT and ROLLBACK, depending on the language).
142 See SET and Chapter 19 for more information about allowed
143 parameter names and values.
146 A string constant defining the procedure; the meaning depends on
147 the language. It can be an internal procedure name, the path to
148 an object file, an SQL command, or text in a procedural
151 It is often helpful to use dollar quoting (see Section 4.1.2.4)
152 to write the procedure definition string, rather than the normal
153 single quote syntax. Without dollar quoting, any single quotes
154 or backslashes in the procedure definition must be escaped by
157 obj_file, link_symbol
158 This form of the AS clause is used for dynamically loadable C
159 language procedures when the procedure name in the C language
160 source code is not the same as the name of the SQL procedure.
161 The string obj_file is the name of the shared library file
162 containing the compiled C procedure, and is interpreted as for
163 the LOAD command. The string link_symbol is the procedure's link
164 symbol, that is, the name of the procedure in the C language
165 source code. If the link symbol is omitted, it is assumed to be
166 the same as the name of the SQL procedure being defined.
168 When repeated CREATE PROCEDURE calls refer to the same object
169 file, the file is only loaded once per session. To unload and
170 reload the file (perhaps during development), start a new
174 The body of a LANGUAGE SQL procedure. This should be a block
183 This is similar to writing the text of the procedure body as a
184 string constant (see definition above), but there are some
185 differences: This form only works for LANGUAGE SQL, the string
186 constant form works for all languages. This form is parsed at
187 procedure definition time, the string constant form is parsed at
188 execution time; therefore this form cannot support polymorphic
189 argument types and other constructs that are not resolvable at
190 procedure definition time. This form tracks dependencies between
191 the procedure and objects used in the procedure body, so DROP
192 ... CASCADE will work correctly, whereas the form using string
193 literals may leave dangling procedures. Finally, this form is
194 more compatible with the SQL standard and other SQL
199 See CREATE FUNCTION for more details on function creation that also
202 Use CALL to execute a procedure.
206 CREATE PROCEDURE insert_data(a integer, b integer)
209 INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (a);
210 INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (b);
214 CREATE PROCEDURE insert_data(a integer, b integer)
217 INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (a);
218 INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (b);
222 CALL insert_data(1, 2);
226 A CREATE PROCEDURE command is defined in the SQL standard. The
227 PostgreSQL implementation can be used in a compatible way but has many
228 extensions. For details see also CREATE FUNCTION.
232 ALTER PROCEDURE, DROP PROCEDURE, CALL, CREATE FUNCTION