How can you expand a “condensed” PostgreSQL row into separate columns?

Question

I have a function which returns a table.

If you run SELECT * FROM some_function(12345) the result is:

object_id | name
----------------
         


        

Answer 1

SELECT * FROM (SELECT some_function(thing_id) FROM things) x;

The subselect SELECT some_function(thing_id) FROM things returns a row for each record found. The outer select "uncompresses" the row into separate columns.