How to select all rows from refcursor returned by PL/pgSQL function?

Question

I have a function some_func() that returns refcursor:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION some_func() RETURNS refcursor AS (...)

I want to call this function from console and display the result set from the cursor returned by it. In Oracle I would write:

SELECT * FROM TABLE(some_func());

What is the equivalent of that construction on PosgreSQL?

Answer 1

A refcursor is referred to by its name, either auto-generated or chosen by you. This page of the doc gives an example for each.

To fetch results from a refcursor you must have the cursor's name. In the case of generated names that'll be something like <unnamed portal 1>". You can then:

FETCH ALL FROM "<unnamed portal 1>";

The cursor name is returned from the function as the refcursor result, so you can get it from there.

Answer 2

Lets say you have a postgres function written in such a way that return a refcursor;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION "com.mkindika"."myfunction" ("refcursor", other input  parameters) RETURNS "pg_catalog"."refcursor" AS 
$body$
DECLARE

---- query

END;
$body$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' STABLE CALLED ON NULL INPUT SECURITY INVOKER;

If you want to print the refcursor you may use following lines of code;

BEGIN;
SELECT "com.mkindika"."myfunction" ("refcursor",other input parameters);
FETCH ALL IN "refcursor";