Originally posted in psql-general, submitted here as a prospective RFE:
When using a row-returning function (RETURNS SETOF record) in the FROM clause of a query, you have to supply a column definition list. I was recently attempting to use a row-returning function in a query and received the following error message:
ERROR: query-specified return row and actual function return row do not match
The function in question returned 8 columns, some of which used fairly lengthy expressions, and it took me quite a while to track down the problem -- it turned out that a column I was expecting to be 'text' was actually 'varchar(10)'. In complex queries, isolating a single type mismatch can be something of a chore.
With that in mind, I'd like to submit a request, that the verbosity of this error message be increased to explain which ordinal column position the error occurred at, and, if possible, the details of the mismatch. In my case, a secondary message saying something like "function foo() column 4 returned type varchar(10), but column definition specifies type text" would have made the debugging process very smooth.
Is this a reasonable suggestion?
Regards BJ
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