On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 6:18 AM, Sim Zacks <s...@compulab.co.il> wrote: > I need an eval function that will evaluate a valid SQL expression and return > the value. > > I've seen variations of this asked before with no real answer. > > I wrote a function to handle it, but it looks like there should be a better > way to do this (see below). > > My use case is a table with date range definitions that should be evaluated > dynamically: > > > For example: > > Period DateFrom > DateTo > > Last Month $expr$current_date-interval '1 month'$expr$ > $expr$current_date$expr$ > > > ... > > select datefrom,dateto into v_datefrom, v_dateto from movingperiods where > period='Last Month'; > > select * from sales where orderdate between eval(v_datefrom)::date and > eval(v_dateto) > > ... > > > > CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION eval(str text) > RETURNS text AS > $BODY$ > declare > row record; > res text; > begin > if lower(str) in ('true','false') then > res:=str; > else > for row in execute 'select (' || str || ')::text as res1' loop > res:=row.res1; > end loop; > end if; > return res; > end; > $BODY$ > LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;
Couple points: *) why a special case for boolean values? *) this should be immutable *) why have a loop? old version of postgres maybe? EXECUTE INTO... merlin -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general