I would personally find this useful, but I would suggest using Oracle's syntax of SELECT func(a=>2, b=>'b', ...);
Having said that, having the concept of DEFAULT for parameters wolud be even more useful, ie: CREATE FUNCTION blah ( a int , b int DEFAULT 0 ); SELECT blah(1,0); and SELECT blah(1); would do the same thing. (Yes, I know there's a work-around, but it's a bit of a pain if you've got 10 parameters that could be omitted). On Fri, Aug 13, 2004 at 02:41:48PM -0700, David Fetter wrote: > Kind people, > > I've brought this up before, and with Dennis Bjőrklund's help, would > like to bring it up again. Here's the idea: > > I'd like to be able to create functions with named parameters that > could be called with the names in any order. For example, > > CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION foo_func(name TEXT, val INTEGER) AS ... > > SELECT foo_func(val AS 23, name AS 'Name goes here'); > > and have it Do The Right Thing. > > Dennis has pointed out that mixing the call-with-named-parameter > interface with call-by-order-of-parameters one would cause confusion, > and I think it would be OK to disallow this type mixing, so > > SELECT foo_func(name AS 'yet another name', 35); > > would be disallowed. > > A calling convention that names parameters makes it a lot easier to > track just exactly what parameter is set to which value, and lets > people not have to memorize what order those named parameters appear > in. On a related note, it would also be nice to have default > parameters and some way to say to use them. > > Well, that's my thoughts so far. What are yours? > > Cheers, > D > -- > David Fetter [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://fetter.org/ > phone: +1 510 893 6100 mobile: +1 415 235 3778 > > Remember to vote! > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 8: explain analyze is your friend > -- Jim C. Nasby, Database Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828 Windows: "Where do you want to go today?" Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?" FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?" ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html