How to pass a record to a PL/pgSQL function?

Question

I have 8 similar PL/pgSQL functions; they are used as INSTEAD OF INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE triggers on views to make them writable. The views each combine columns of

Answer 1

There are various options, depending on the complete picture.
Basically, your insert function could work like this:

CREATE FUNCTION insert_thing (_thing flavored_view)
   RETURNS int AS
$func$
   INSERT INTO things (name) VALUES ($1.name) -- plus 30 more columns
   RETURNING id;
$func$ LANGUAGE sql;

Using the row type of the view, because NEW in your trigger is of this type.
Use a simple SQL function, which can be inlined and might perform better.

Demo call:

SELECT insert_thing('(1, foo, 1, bar)');

Inside your trigger flavored_trig ():

inserted_id := insert_thing(NEW);

Or, basically rewritten:

IF TG_OP = 'INSERT' THEN
   INSERT INTO flavored_things(thing_id, flavor)
   VALUES (insert_thing(NEW), NEW.flavor);
   RETURN NEW;
ELSIF ...

record is not a valid type outside PL/pgSQL, it's just a generic placeholder for a yet unknown row type in PL/pgSQL) so you cannot use it for an input parameter in a function declaration.

For a more dynamic function accepting various row types you could use a polymorphic type. Examples:

• How to return a table by rowtype in PL/pgSQL
• Refactor a PL/pgSQL function to return the output of various SELECT queries
• How to write a function that returns text or integer values?