Assign values with the := operator

Question

When I assign a variable with

result := title || '', by '' || author;

it is taking more time (approx. 15 sec) to run the function.
However, when I assign the variable with

result = title || '', by '' || author;

it takes only 133ms.

Why is it taking more time for the first scenario? And what is the reason behind this?

Full function is given below.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION myschema.fn_get_res_no(reservation_no character varying)
  RETURNS character varying AS
$BODY$  

DECLARE  
    emd_status_firstcall varchar(2);  
    emd_status_secondcall varchar(2);
    emd_status      varchar(6);  
BEGIN  
    SELECT firstwscomplete, secondwscomplete
    INTO emd_status_firstcall, emd_status_secondcall
    FROM myschema.mytable
    WHERE respkgconfirmid = reservation_no;

    emd_status = emd_status_firstcall || ', ' || emd_status_secondcall;
    RETURN emd_status ;  

END;  
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE;

Answer 1

This question concerns PL/pgSQL exclusively, where := is the assignment operator. It has no place in pure SQL.

Using = instead of := in PL/pgSQL is an undocumented legacy feature, which should not be used.
:= is the documented assignment operator in PL/pgSQL..
More details about that in this related question on SO.

Update: Since Postgres 9.4 = is also documented as plpgsql assignement operator.

I have never seen = performing faster than :=. They should be identical. I fact, I tested your exact code in Postgres 9.1 and 9.2 and found no difference in performance whatsoever.
You may be mis-interpreting caching effects. Always run EXPLAIN ANALYZE a couple of times to populate the cache and get comparable results.

Finally, you could replace your function with this much simpler and faster one:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION myschema.fn_get_res_no(reservation_no varchar)
  RETURNS varchar AS
$BODY$  
BEGIN  
   RETURN (
      SELECT firstwscomplete || ', ' || secondwscomplete
      FROM   myschema.mytable
      WHERE  respkgconfirmid = reservation_no
      );
END  
$BODY$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Or even use a plain SQL function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION myschema.fn_get_res_no(reservation_no varchar)
  RETURNS varchar AS
$BODY$  
   SELECT firstwscomplete || ', ' || secondwscomplete
   FROM   myschema.mytable
   WHERE  respkgconfirmid = reservation_no);
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE sql;

Assignments in PL/pgSQL

It is comparatively expensive to make assignments in PL/pgSQL, which is a very simple Ada-like procedural language. Every assignment is executed with a (very simple) SELECT command, which is more expensive than in other fully fledged procedural languages.

PL/pgSQL excels as glue for SQL commands, when you need some procedural elements.

Answer 2

Well as far as I know "=" is not an assignment operator in PL/pgSQL, it is a comparison operator. If this does not explain the issue then we'd best see the complete code.