postgresqlplpgsqldynamic-sqlaccent-insensitiveunaccent

unaccent() does not work with Greek letters in plpgsql dynamic query

I use PostgreSQL 10 and I run CREATE EXTENSION unaccent; succesfully. I have a plgsql function that contains the following whereText := 'lower(unaccent(place.name)) LIKE lower(unaccent($1))';

later, according to what user chose, more clauses may be added to the whereText.

The whereText is finally used in the query:

placewithkeys := '%'||placename||'%';
RETURN QUERY EXECUTE format('SELECT id, name FROM '||fromText||' WHERE '||whereText)
     USING  placewithkeys , event, date;

The whereText := 'LOWER(unaccent(place.name)) LIKE LOWER(unaccent($1))'; does not work, even if I remove the LOWER part.

I do select __my_function('Τζι'); and I get nothing back, even though I should get back results, because in the database there is the name Τζίμα

If I remove the unaccent and leave the LOWER it works, but not for accents : τζ brings Τζίμα back as it should. It seems like the unaccent is causing a problem.

What am I missing? How can I fix this?

Since there were comments about the syntax and possible SQLi , I provide the whole function definition, now changed to work accent-insensitive and case-insensitive in Greek:

CREATE  FUNCTION __a_search_place
(placename text, eventtype integer, eventdate integer, eventcentury integer, constructiondate integer, constructioncentury integer, arstyle integer, artype integer)
RETURNS TABLE
(place_id bigint, place_name text, place_geom geometry) 
AS $$
DECLARE
selectText text;
fromText text;
whereText text;
usingText text; 
placewithkeys text;
BEGIN   
    fromText := '
    place
    JOIN cep ON place.id = cep.place_id
    JOIN event ON cep.event_id = event.id                     
    ';  
    whereText := 'unaccent(place.name) iLIKE  unaccent($1)';   
    placewithkeys := '%'||placename||'%';
    IF constructiondate IS NOT NULL OR constructioncentury IS NOT NULL OR arstyle IS NOT NULL OR artype IS NOT NULL THEN
        fromText := fromText || '
        JOIN construction ON cep.construction_id = construction.id
        JOIN construction_atype ON construction.id = construction_atype.construction_id
        JOIN construction_astyle ON construction.id = construction_astyle.construction_id
        JOIN atype ON atype.id = construction_atype.atype_id
        JOIN astyle ON astyle.id = construction_astyle.astyle_id  
        ';   
    END IF;    
    IF eventtype IS NOT NULL THEN
        whereText := whereText || 'AND event.type = $2 ';
    END IF;
    IF eventdate IS NOT NULL THEN
        whereText := whereText || 'AND event.date = $3 ';
    END IF;
    IF eventcentury IS NOT NULL THEN
        whereText := whereText || 'AND event.century = $4 ';
    END IF;    
    IF constructiondate IS NOT NULL THEN
        whereText := whereText || 'AND construction.date = $5 ';
    END IF;
    IF constructioncentury IS NOT NULL THEN
        whereText := whereText || 'AND construction.century = $6 ';
    END IF;
    IF arstyle IS NOT NULL THEN
        whereText := whereText || 'AND astyle.id = $7 ';
    END IF;
    IF artype IS NOT NULL THEN
        whereText := whereText || 'AND atype.id = $8 ';
    END IF;   
    whereText := whereText || '    
    GROUP BY place.id, place.geom, place.name
    ';    

    RETURN QUERY EXECUTE format('SELECT place.id, place.name, place.geom FROM '||fromText||' WHERE '||whereText)      
    USING  placewithkeys, eventtype, eventdate, eventcentury, constructiondate, constructioncentury, arstyle, artype ;

END;
$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Solution

  • Postgres 12

    unaccent() now works for Greek letters, too. Diacritic signs are removed:

    db<>fiddle here

    Quoting the release notes:

    Allow unaccent to remove accents from Greek characters (Tasos Maschalidis)


    Postgres 11 or older

    unaccent() does not yet work for Greek letters. The call:

    SELECT unaccent('
ἀ ἁ ἂ ἃ ἄ ἅ ἆ ἇ Ἀ Ἁ Ἂ Ἃ Ἄ Ἅ Ἆ Ἇ
ἐ ἑ ἒ ἓ ἔ ἕ         Ἐ Ἑ Ἒ Ἓ Ἔ Ἕ     
ἠ ἡ ἢ ἣ ἤ ἥ ἦ ἧ Ἠ Ἡ Ἢ Ἣ Ἤ Ἥ Ἦ Ἧ
ἰ ἱ ἲ ἳ ἴ ἵ ἶ ἷ Ἰ Ἱ Ἲ Ἳ Ἴ Ἵ Ἶ Ἷ
ὀ ὁ ὂ ὃ ὄ ὅ         Ὀ Ὁ Ὂ Ὃ Ὄ Ὅ     
ὐ ὑ ὒ ὓ ὔ ὕ ὖ ὗ     Ὑ   Ὓ   Ὕ   Ὗ
ὠ ὡ ὢ ὣ ὤ ὥ ὦ ὧ Ὠ Ὡ Ὢ Ὣ Ὤ Ὥ Ὦ Ὧ
ὰ ά ὲ έ ὴ ή ὶ ί ὸ ό ὺ ύ ὼ ώ     
ᾀ ᾁ ᾂ ᾃ ᾄ ᾅ ᾆ ᾇ ᾈ ᾉ ᾊ ᾋ ᾌ ᾍ ᾎ ᾏ
ᾐ ᾑ ᾒ ᾓ ᾔ ᾕ ᾖ ᾗ ᾘ ᾙ ᾚ ᾛ ᾜ ᾝ ᾞ ᾟ
ᾠ ᾡ ᾢ ᾣ ᾤ ᾥ ᾦ ᾧ ᾨ ᾩ ᾪ ᾫ ᾬ ᾭ ᾮ ᾯ
ᾰ ᾱ ᾲ ᾳ ᾴ   ᾶ ᾷ Ᾰ Ᾱ Ὰ Ά ᾼ ᾽ ι ᾿
῀ ῁ ῂ ῃ ῄ   ῆ ῇ Ὲ Έ Ὴ Ή ῌ ῍ ῎ ῏
ῐ ῑ ῒ ΐ         ῖ ῗ Ῐ Ῑ Ὶ Ί     ῝ ῞ ῟
ῠ ῡ ῢ ΰ ῤ ῥ ῦ ῧ Ῠ Ῡ Ὺ Ύ Ῥ ῭ ΅ `
        ῲ ῳ ῴ   ῶ ῷ Ὸ Ό Ὼ Ώ ῼ ´ ῾ ');

    ... returns all letters unchanged, no diacritic signs removed as we would expect.
    (I extracted this list from the Wikipedia page on Greek diacritics.)

    db<>fiddle here

    Looks like a shortcoming of the unaccent module. You can extend the default unaccent dictionary or create your own. There are instructions in the manual. I created several dictionaries in the past and it's simple. And you are not to first to need this:

    Postgres unaccent rules for greek characters:

    Unaccent rules plus greek characters for Postgres 9.6:

    You need write access to the file system of the server, though - the directory containing the unaccent files. So, not possible on most cloud services ...

    Or you might report a bug and ask to include Greek diacritic signs.

    Aside: Dyamic SQL and SQLi

    The code fragments you presented are not vulnerable to SQL injection. $1 is concatenated as literal string and only resolved in the EXECUTE command later, where the value is safely passed with the USING clause. So, no unsafe concatenation there. I would do it like this, though:

    RETURN QUERY EXECUTE format(
   $q$
   SELECT id, name
   FROM   place ... 
   WHERE  lower(unaccent(place.name)) LIKE '%' || lower(unaccent($1)) || '%'
   $q$
   )
USING  placename, event, date;

    Notes:

    Audited function

    After you provided your complete function ...

    CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION __a_search_place(
        placename             text
      , eventtype             int = NULL
      , eventdate             int = NULL
      , eventcentury          int = NULL
      , constructiondate      int = NULL
      , constructioncentury   int = NULL
      , arstyle               int = NULL
      , artype                int = NULL)
  RETURNS TABLE(place_id bigint, place_name text, place_geom geometry) AS
$func$
BEGIN
   -- RAISE NOTICE '%', concat_ws(E'\n' -- to debug
   RETURN QUERY EXECUTE concat_ws(E'\n'
 ,'SELECT p.id, p.name, p.geom
   FROM   place p
   WHERE  unaccent(p.name) ILIKE (''%'' || unaccent($1) || ''%'')'  -- no $-quotes
              -- any input besides placename ($1)
, CASE WHEN NOT ($2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8) IS NULL THEN
  'AND    EXISTS (
      SELECT
      FROM   cep
      JOIN   event e ON e.id = cep.event_id' END
               -- constructiondate, constructioncentury, arstyle, artype
 , CASE WHEN NOT ($5,$6,$7,$8) IS NULL THEN

     'JOIN   construction    con ON cep.construction_id = con.id
      JOIN   construction_atype  ON con.id = construction_atype.construction_id
      JOIN   construction_astyle ON con.id = construction_astyle.construction_id' END
              -- arstyle, artype
, CASE WHEN NOT ($7,$8) IS NULL THEN
     'JOIN   atype               ON atype.id = construction_atype.atype_id
      JOIN   astyle              ON astyle.id = construction_astyle.astyle_id' END
 , CASE WHEN NOT ($2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8) IS NULL THEN
     'WHERE  cep.place_id = p.id' END
 , CASE WHEN eventtype           IS NOT NULL THEN 'AND e.type = $2'      END
 , CASE WHEN eventdate           IS NOT NULL THEN 'AND e.date = $3'      END
 , CASE WHEN eventcentury        IS NOT NULL THEN 'AND e.century = $4'   END
 , CASE WHEN constructiondate    IS NOT NULL THEN 'AND con.date = $5'    END
 , CASE WHEN constructioncentury IS NOT NULL THEN 'AND con.century = $6' END
 , CASE WHEN arstyle             IS NOT NULL THEN 'AND astyle.id = $7'   END
 , CASE WHEN artype              IS NOT NULL THEN 'AND atype.id = $8'    END
 , CASE WHEN NOT ($2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8) IS NULL THEN
     ')' END
   );
   USING  placename
        , eventtype
        , eventdate
        , eventcentury
        , constructiondate
        , constructioncentury
        , arstyle
        , artype;
END
$func$  LANGUAGE plpgsql;

    This is a complete rewrite with several improvements. Should make the function considerably. Also SQLi-safe (like your original). Should be functionally identical except the cases where I join fewer tables, which might not filter rows that are filtered by joining to the tables alone.

    Major features: