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Postgres. FORMAT doesn't replace type argument with provided value


Honestly, I have no much experience with postgres and sql at all.

I'm Trying to make function with dynamic table and column names using EXECUTE FORMAT(...) query. But whatever I tried FORMAT doesn't consider values provided for type arguments such as %s and %I. And googling didn't help due to lack of useful information. I saw many examples and my code doesn't differentiate from examples but doesn't work. I made fiddle here -> db-fiddle

Here's my DDL code:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS tbl (
    first_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    last_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL
);

CREATE FUNCTION occurences_number(varchar, varchar) RETURNS integer AS ' 
DECLARE
  text varchar := LOWER($1);
  str varchar  := LOWER($2);
BEGIN
  RETURN (CHAR_LENGTH(text) - CHAR_LENGTH(REPLACE(text, str, " "))) / CHAR_LENGTH(str);
END; '
LANGUAGE PLPGSQL;


CREATE FUNCTION records_with_string(regclass, varchar, varchar)
RETURNS integer AS '
DECLARE
  result integer;
  tbl ALIAS FOR $1;
  col ALIAS FOR $2;
  str ALIAS FOR $3;
BEGIN
  EXECUTE format("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM %I WHERE occurences_number(%I, %s) > 0", tbl::varchar, col::varchar, str::varchar)
  INTO result;
  RETURN result;
END; '
LANGUAGE PLPGSQL;

And here's query:

INSERT INTO tbl VALUES ('a', 'aaa bbb ccc ddd'), ('b', 'aaa bbb'), ('c', 'ccc ddd'), ('d', 'aaa ccc ddd'), ('e', 'aaa bbb ccc ddd eee');

SELECT "records_with_string"('tbl'::regclass, 'last_name', 'eee') FROM tbl;

The result of the query is:

Query Error: error: column "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM %I WHERE occurences_number(%I, %s) > 0" does not exist

What do I do wrong?

UPDATE db-fiddle doesn't accept $$


Solution

  • You should not use double quotes for string literals but only single quotes and you should use %L for SQL literals when using format:

    select * from tbl;
     first_name |      last_name      
    ------------+---------------------
     a          | aaa bbb ccc ddd
     b          | aaa bbb
     c          | ccc ddd
     d          | aaa ccc ddd
     e          | aaa bbb ccc ddd eee
    (5 rows)
    
    CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION occurences_number(varchar, varchar) RETURNS integer AS 
    $$
    DECLARE
      text varchar := LOWER($1);
      str varchar  := LOWER($2);
    BEGIN
      RETURN (CHAR_LENGTH(text) - CHAR_LENGTH(REPLACE(text, str, ' '))) / CHAR_LENGTH(str);
    END;
    $$ 
    LANGUAGE PLPGSQL;
    CREATE FUNCTION
    
    CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION records_with_string(tbl varchar, col varchar, str varchar)
    RETURNS integer AS
    $$ 
    DECLARE
      result integer;
    BEGIN
      EXECUTE format('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM %I WHERE occurences_number(%L, %L) > 0', tbl, col, str)
      INTO result;
      RETURN result;
    END;
    $$ 
    LANGUAGE PLPGSQL;
    CREATE FUNCTION
    
    SELECT "records_with_string"('tbl', 'last_name', 'eee') FROM tbl;
     records_with_string 
    ---------------------
                       0
                       0
                       0
                       0
                       0
    (5 rows)