Thread

1. Stored Procedures

   Jeff MacDonald <jeff@hub.org> — 1999-11-05T14:30:34Z

   Greets,
   
   Couple of questions, 
   
   	1: does postgres support stored procedures
   	2: say a user has a microsoft sql server 7 database
   	with ~120 stored procedures, and alot of data, is their
   	a script or tool to convert that to a postgres database
   	or does it have to be done by hand.
   
   
   Jeff MacDonald
   jeff@hub.org
   
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2. Re: [GENERAL] Stored Procedures

   Moray McConnachie <moray.mcconnachie@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk> — 1999-11-05T15:31:06Z

   ----- Original Message -----
   From: Brett W. McCoy <bmccoy@lan2wan.com>
   To: Jeff MacDonald <jeff@hub.org>
   Cc: <pgsql-general@postgreSQL.org>
   Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 3:52 PM
   Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Stored Procedures
   
   
   > On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, Jeff MacDonald wrote:
   >
   > > 1: does postgres support stored procedures
   >
   > Yes, quite extensively, and far beyond what SQL 7 offers.  You may
   want
   > to take a look at the programmer's manual for the documentation.
   
   I thought we had rather a long debate recently about whether and if
   Postgres did/should support stored procedures, and the point was that
   it doesn't at the moment?
   
   PL/PgSQL functions are not at all the same thing, although they are
   obviously very useful.
   Yours,
   Moray
   
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   ----------------
   Moray.McConnachie@computing-services.oxford.ac.uk
   
   
   
   

3. Re: [GENERAL] Stored Procedures

   Gene Sokolov <hook@aktrad.ru> — 1999-11-05T15:38:18Z

   > 1: does postgres support stored procedures
   
   Yes, but they can't return datasets in any meaningfull way. They can return
   single values only.
   
   > 2: say a user has a microsoft sql server 7 database
   > with ~120 stored procedures, and alot of data, is their
   > a script or tool to convert that to a postgres database
   > or does it have to be done by hand.
   
   You have to rewrite your procedures if they return rows. IMO, this is the
   major deficiency of Postgers.
   
   Gene Sokolov.
   
   
   
   
   

4. Re: [GENERAL] Stored Procedures

   Brett W. McCoy <bmccoy@lan2wan.com> — 1999-11-05T15:52:24Z

   On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, Jeff MacDonald wrote:
   
   > 	1: does postgres support stored procedures
   
   Yes, quite extensively, and far beyond what SQL 7 offers.  You may want 
   to take a look at the programmer's manual for the documentation.
   
   > 	2: say a user has a microsoft sql server 7 database
   > 	with ~120 stored procedures, and alot of data, is their
   > 	a script or tool to convert that to a postgres database
   > 	or does it have to be done by hand.
   > 
   
   You can convert the data over with ODBC, but not the stored procedures. 
   Under SQL 7, stored procedures are essentially SQL batch files and cannot
   be used as a term in an expression, whereas under PostgreSQL, you can
   create true functions in PL/PgSQL (a procedural language akin to
   Oracle's), or as loadable executable modules written in C, C++, Tcl, etc.,
   that returns values and objects, and can be used in an expression. 
   
   I was shocked recently when we put in SQL 7 in our office (we've been 
   using PostgreSQL for a while now, but we needed SQL 7 to use with a 
   commercial retrieval system) and needed to start writing functions as I 
   was used to under PostgreSQL, and couldn't.  A big win for PostgreSQL!
   
   Brett W. McCoy           
                                            http://www.lan2wan.com/~bmccoy
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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   truth without lying.
   
   
   

5. Re: [GENERAL] Stored Procedures

   Brett W. McCoy <bmccoy@lan2wan.com> — 1999-11-05T16:42:23Z

   On Fri, 5 Nov 1999, Moray McConnachie wrote:
   
   > > Yes, quite extensively, and far beyond what SQL 7 offers.  You may
   > want
   > > to take a look at the programmer's manual for the documentation.
   > 
   > I thought we had rather a long debate recently about whether and if
   > Postgres did/should support stored procedures, and the point was that
   > it doesn't at the moment?
   > 
   > PL/PgSQL functions are not at all the same thing, although they are
   > obviously very useful.
   
   What's the difference between the two, then?  What does a stored procedure
   do that a function doesn't?  The PostgreSQL 'CREATE FUNCTION', as it is
   described in the documentation, is very similar to the not yet
   standardized stored module facility in SQL. 
   
   Brett W. McCoy           
                                            http://www.lan2wan.com/~bmccoy
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