Jan, Tom, etc:
Currently (7.0.3) the PLPGSQL function compiler permits only one RETURN
statment, at the end of the function. RETURN statements placed
elsewhere cause a compile error.
This, combined with the lack of an ELSEIF statement, has forced me into
sometimes 7 levels of nested IF..THEN statements. WHile they work fine,
they're a bit hard to read and edit. For example, say I want to test
for a, b, c, or d sequentially, under the 7.0.3 compiler, I must:
BEGIN
IF a THEN
return_text := 'One';
ELSE
IF b THEN
return_text := 'Two';
ELSE
IF c THEN
return_text := 'Three';
ELSE
IF d THEN
return_text := 'Four';
ELSE
return_text := 'Not Found';
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
END IF;
RETURN return_text;
END;
As you can see, this kind of structure gets kind of had to read and
maintain for more complex statments. I have two suggested revisions to
the compiler that would make this much easier:
SUGGESTION A: Support of an ELSEIF statement, as:
IF a THEN
return_text := 'One';
ELSEIF b THEN
return_text := 'Two';
ELSIF c THEN
return_text := 'Three';
...etc.
SUGGESTION B: Allow more than one RETURN statment in the function text,
with funciton processing to terminate as soon as a RETURN is reached in
the program logic, but otherwise be ignored:
IF a THEN
RETURN 'One';
END IF;
IF b THEN
RETURN 'Two';
END IF;
...etc.
Both approaches would, from my perspective, make my code easier to read
and maintain. And, of course, you may have already implemented one or
the other in 7.1 (which I have not yet got to run on an alternate port).
Thanks for your hard work and consideration towards us users.
-Josh Berkus
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