Hello I looked on some constructs that helps with iteration over array in plpgsql. I propose a following syntax:
FOR var IN [array variable | array expression] LOOP .. END LOOP var - declared variable - theoretically we can a detect var type from array type, but it needs a early expression an analyze (not used in PL/pgSQL), so var should be declared before. This construct ensure iteration over all items of array. When somebody needs a subscripts from some dimension, then he can use a proposed function "subscripts". so iteration over two dimensional array can be written: DECLARE i integer; j integer; BEGIN FOR i IN subscripts(myarray, 1) LOOP FOR j IN subscripts(myarray, 2) LOOP RAISE NOTICE 'myarray[%,%] = %', i, j, myarray[i,j]; END LOOP; END LOOP; When input array is multidimensional, then this array is flattened - order of iteration is specified by physical store of items inside the array. This construct iterate over all items of input array - it has a same behave as "unnest" function. some examples: DECLARE v integer; a int[] := ARRAY[2,3.4,5]; BEGIN FOR val IN a LOOP RAISE NOTICE '%', val; -- produce 2,3,4,5 END LOOP; FOR val IN subscripts(a, 1) LOOP RAISE NOTICE '%', val; -- produce 1,2,3,4 END LOOP; FOR val IN subscripts(a,1) LOOP RAISE NOTICE '%', a[val]; -- produce 2,3,4,5 END LOOP; END; Comments, ideas? Regards Pavel Stehule -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers