CREATE PROCEDURE(7) PostgreSQL 14.1 Documentation CREATE PROCEDURE(7)
NAME
CREATE_PROCEDURE - define a new procedure
SYNOPSIS
CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] PROCEDURE
name ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [ { DEFAULT | = } default_expr ] [, ...] ] )
{ LANGUAGE lang_name
| TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ]
| [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER
| SET configuration_parameter { TO value | = value | FROM CURRENT }
| AS 'definition'
| AS 'obj_file', 'link_symbol'
| sql_body
} ...
DESCRIPTION
CREATE PROCEDURE defines a new procedure. CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE
will either create a new procedure, or replace an existing definition.
To be able to define a procedure, the user must have the USAGE
privilege on the language.
If a schema name is included, then the procedure is created in the
specified schema. Otherwise it is created in the current schema. The
name of the new procedure must not match any existing procedure or
function with the same input argument types in the same schema.
However, procedures and functions of different argument types can share
a name (this is called overloading).
To replace the current definition of an existing procedure, use CREATE
OR REPLACE PROCEDURE. It is not possible to change the name or argument
types of a procedure this way (if you tried, you would actually be
creating a new, distinct procedure).
When CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE is used to replace an existing
procedure, the ownership and permissions of the procedure do not
change. All other procedure properties are assigned the values
specified or implied in the command. You must own the procedure to
replace it (this includes being a member of the owning role).
The user that creates the procedure becomes the owner of the procedure.
To be able to create a procedure, you must have USAGE privilege on the
argument types.
Refer to Section 38.4 for further information on writing procedures.
PARAMETERS
name
The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the procedure to create.
argmode
The mode of an argument: IN, OUT, INOUT, or VARIADIC. If omitted,
the default is IN.
argname
The name of an argument.
argtype
The data type(s) of the procedure'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. Using this feature can sometimes help
make a procedure independent of changes to the definition of a
table.
default_expr
An 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. All input parameters following a parameter with a
default value must have default values as well.
lang_name
The name of the language that the procedure is implemented in. It
can be sql, c, internal, or the name of a user-defined procedural
language, e.g., plpgsql. The default is sql if sql_body is
specified. Enclosing the name in single quotes is deprecated and
requires matching case.
TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ] }
Lists which transforms a call to the procedure should apply.
Transforms convert between SQL types and language-specific data
types; see CREATE TRANSFORM (CREATE_TRANSFORM(7)). 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.
[EXTERNAL] SECURITY INVOKER
[EXTERNAL] SECURITY DEFINER
SECURITY INVOKER indicates that the procedure is to be executed
with the privileges of the user that calls it. That is the default.
SECURITY DEFINER specifies that the procedure is to be executed
with the privileges of the user that owns it.
The key word EXTERNAL is allowed for SQL conformance, but it is
optional since, unlike in SQL, this feature applies to all
procedures not only external ones.
A SECURITY DEFINER procedure cannot execute transaction control
statements (for example, COMMIT and ROLLBACK, depending on the
language).
configuration_parameter
value
The SET clause causes the specified configuration parameter to be
set to the specified value when the procedure is entered, and then
restored to its prior value when the procedure exits. SET FROM
CURRENT saves the value of the parameter that is current when
CREATE PROCEDURE is executed as the value to be applied when the
procedure is entered.
If a SET clause is attached to a procedure, then the effects of a
SET LOCAL command executed inside the procedure for the same
variable are restricted to the procedure: the configuration
parameter's prior value is still restored at procedure exit.
However, an ordinary SET command (without LOCAL) overrides the SET
clause, much as it would do for a previous SET LOCAL command: the
effects of such a command will persist after procedure exit, unless
the current transaction is rolled back.
If a SET clause is attached to a procedure, then that procedure
cannot execute transaction control statements (for example, COMMIT
and ROLLBACK, depending on the language).
See SET(7) and Chapter 20 for more information about allowed
parameter names and values.
definition
A string constant defining the procedure; the meaning depends on
the language. It can be an internal procedure name, the path to an
object file, an SQL command, or text in a procedural language.
It is often helpful to use dollar quoting (see Section 4.1.2.4) to
write the procedure definition string, rather than the normal
single quote syntax. Without dollar quoting, any single quotes or
backslashes in the procedure definition must be escaped by doubling
them.
obj_file, link_symbol
This form of the AS clause is used for dynamically loadable C
language procedures when the procedure name in the C language
source code is not the same as the name of the SQL procedure. The
string obj_file is the name of the shared library file containing
the compiled C procedure, and is interpreted as for the LOAD
command. The string link_symbol is the procedure's link symbol,
that is, the name of the procedure in the C language source code.
If the link symbol is omitted, it is assumed to be the same as the
name of the SQL procedure being defined.
When repeated CREATE PROCEDURE calls refer to the same object file,
the file is only loaded once per session. To unload and reload the
file (perhaps during development), start a new session.
sql_body
The body of a LANGUAGE SQL procedure. This should be a block
BEGIN ATOMIC
statement;
statement;
...
statement;
END
This is similar to writing the text of the procedure body as a
string constant (see definition above), but there are some
differences: This form only works for LANGUAGE SQL, the string
constant form works for all languages. This form is parsed at
procedure definition time, the string constant form is parsed at
execution time; therefore this form cannot support polymorphic
argument types and other constructs that are not resolvable at
procedure definition time. This form tracks dependencies between
the procedure and objects used in the procedure body, so DROP ...
CASCADE will work correctly, whereas the form using string literals
may leave dangling procedures. Finally, this form is more
compatible with the SQL standard and other SQL implementations.
NOTES
See CREATE FUNCTION (CREATE_FUNCTION(7)) for more details on function
creation that also apply to procedures.
Use CALL(7) to execute a procedure.
EXAMPLES
CREATE PROCEDURE insert_data(a integer, b integer)
LANGUAGE SQL
AS $$
INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (a);
INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (b);
$$;
or
CREATE PROCEDURE insert_data(a integer, b integer)
LANGUAGE SQL
BEGIN ATOMIC
INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (a);
INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (b);
END;
and call like this:
CALL insert_data(1, 2);
COMPATIBILITY
A CREATE PROCEDURE command is defined in the SQL standard. The
PostgreSQL implementation can be used in a compatible way but has many
extensions. For details see also CREATE FUNCTION (CREATE_FUNCTION(7)).
SEE ALSO
ALTER PROCEDURE (ALTER_PROCEDURE(7)), DROP PROCEDURE
(DROP_PROCEDURE(7)), CALL(7), CREATE FUNCTION (CREATE_FUNCTION(7))
PostgreSQL 14.1 2021 CREATE PROCEDURE(7)
postgresql 14.1 - Generated Mon Jan 3 12:47:16 CST 2022
