Declare variable for SELECT statement in Postgres function

Question

I have modified my function, but I have problems with declaring variables. I use Postgres 8.4.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION requestcounterid(_mindate timestamptz, _maxdate timestamptz) 
  RETURNS TABLE (kategorien text, requestcounter int) AS
$func$  
DECLARE
_minid bigint;
_maxid bigint;

BEGIN 

SELECT id  INTO _minid from tablename
where starttime >= $1 ORDER BY starttime ASC LIMIT 1; 
SELECT id  INTO _maxid from tablename
where starttime < $2 ORDER BY starttime DESC LIMIT 1; 

SELECT CASE WHEN duration <= 10000000 THEN '00-01 sec'::text
            WHEN duration <= 40000000 THEN '01-04 sec'
            WHEN duration <= 100000000 THEN '04-10 sec' 
            WHEN duration <= 300000000 THEN '10-30 sec' 
            WHEN duration <= 600000000 THEN '30-60 sec' 
            ELSE 'more than 60 sec' END  
     , count(*)::int                     
FROM   tablename
WHERE  id >= _minid and id <= _maxid
GROUP  BY 1                              
ORDER  BY 1; 

END; 
$func$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Error:

ERROR:  query has no destination for result data
HINT:  If you want to discard the results of a SELECT, use PERFORM instead.
CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function "requestcounterid" line 12 at SQL statement

How to fix this?

Answer 1

If the SELECT with the CASE expression is something you want to return in the output table, just add RETURN QUERY before it:

RETURN QUERY SELECT CASE ...

Note: 8.4 is very old now. Even 9.0 is out of support by now - consider upgrading to a recent major version soon. The old ones usually don't get any security (and other) fixes anymore.

Answer 2

I think we discussed the use of RETURN QUERY for plpgsql functions at your previous related question on SO:

• Create function with SELECT CASE

Again, it would be more efficient to use a simple SQL function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION requestcounterid(_mindate timestamptz, _maxdate timestamptz) 
  RETURNS TABLE (kategorien text, requestcounter int) AS
$func$
   SELECT CASE WHEN duration <=  10000000 THEN '00-01 sec'::text
               WHEN duration <=  40000000 THEN '01-04 sec'
               WHEN duration <= 100000000 THEN '04-10 sec'
               WHEN duration <= 300000000 THEN '10-30 sec'
               WHEN duration <= 600000000 THEN '30-60 sec'
               ELSE 'more than 60 sec' END
        , count(*)::int  
   FROM   tbl
   WHERE  id >= (SELECT id FROM tbl
                 WHERE starttime >= $1 ORDER BY starttime ASC LIMIT 1)
   AND    id <= (SELECT id FROM tbl
                 WHERE starttime <  $2 ORDER BY starttime DESC LIMIT 1)
   GROUP  BY 1
   ORDER  BY 1;
$func$ LANGUAGE sql;

Multiple separate queries and assignments are more expensive.