PostgreSQL array of type table/setof - sql

Question

I need to code a function in postgresql that must 'pick' entire rows from a table depending on a condition and then insert them into an array, and finally return that array.
I'm actually querying the rows I need but there's an special column from the table that I must evaluate first to see if I can retrieve it or not (insert to the array), depending on the type of user is doing the query (customer or worker).
For example:
The special column is named "watchers" and has two variants: 'my_team' and 'only_me' and also has another column named "user_id".
If the column says 'my_team', the row can be inserted into the array with no problems, but if it says 'only_me' I must compare the id of the user calling the function and the user registered in that row, if they match I can insert it into the array, otherwise I can't.
Thing is that as I've read so far it seems that it can't be done with arrays, so I'd like to know if there's another way of doing this, maybe with an extra table or something?
Thanks for your help!
This is the code I have:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.calculates_permission_by_task(task_id integer)
RETURNS SETOF permission
LANGUAGE plpgsql
STABLE
AS $function$
DECLARE
num int := 5;
record permission;
ret_permissions permission [];
BEGIN
FOR record IN (select
p.id, p.slug
from task as t
join service_request_form as srf on t.service_request_form_id = srf.id
join service_group as sg on srf.service_group_id = sg.id
join worker_group as wg on wg.service_group_id = sg.id
join worker_group_member as wgm on wg.id = wgm.worker_group_id
join role as r on r.id = wgm.role_id
join permission_role as pr on r.id = pr.role_id
join permission as p on p.id = pr.permission_id
where t.id = task_id
and wgm.user_id = 'LFudaU6jzid4SKFlU8MgFAwezyP2'
and pr.value <> 'off'
and pr.value <> 'no')
LOOP
/* Here is where I pretend to do the comparison and insert data into the array */
ret_permission := array_append(ret_permissions, record.id);
END LOOP;
RETURN ret_permissions;
END
$function$

Answer 1

You could implement the logic in the query itself.
Assuming that the user_id column you are refering to corresponds to wgm.user_id, that is already in the query, the where clause of the query would become:
where
t.id = task_id
and pr.value not in ('off', 'no')
and (
?.watchers = 'my_team'
or (
?.watchers = 'only_me'
or wgm.user_id = 'LFudaU6jzid4SKFlU8MgFAwezyP2'
)
)
You don't tell which table watches belong to, so I used ?, which you need to replace that with the relevant table alias.
If there are just two possible values for watchers, then we can simplify the predicates:
where
t.id = task_id
and pr.value not in ('off', 'no')
and (?.watchers = 'my_team' or wgm.user_id = 'LFudaU6jzid4SKFlU8MgFAwezyP2')

Answer 2

You don't need an array
you don't need a cursor loop
You don't even need plpgsql
plain SQL wiill suffice:
CREATE TABLE permission (
id integer
, slug text
);
INSERT INTO permission(id,slug) VALUES (1,'WTF' );
CREATE TABLE task (
id integer
, service_request_form_id integer
);
INSERT INTO task(id, service_request_form_id) VALUES (1,1 );
CREATE TABLE service_request_form (
id integer
, service_group_id integer
);
INSERT INTO service_request_form(id, service_group_id) VALUES (1,1 );
CREATE TABLE service_group (
id integer
);
INSERT INTO service_group(id) VALUES (1);
CREATE TABLE worker_group (
id integer
, service_group_id integer
);
INSERT INTO worker_group(id, service_group_id) VALUES (1,1 );
CREATE TABLE worker_group_member (
worker_group_id integer
, role_id integer
, user_id text
);
INSERT INTO worker_group_member(worker_group_id, role_id,user_id) VALUES (1,1,'LFudaU6jzid4SKFlU8MgFAwezyP2' );
CREATE TABLE zrole (
id integer
);
INSERT INTO zrole(id) VALUES (1 );
CREATE TABLE permission_role (
role_id integer
, permission_id integer
, value text
);
INSERT INTO permission_role(role_id,permission_id,value) VALUES (1,1,'Yes' );
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.calculates_permission_by_task(task_id integer)
RETURNS SETOF permission
LANGUAGE sql STABLE SECURITY INVOKER ROWS 30 -- COST 1
AS $func$
SELECT p.id, p.slug
FROM permission as p
WHERE EXISTS (
SELECT *
FROM task as t
JOIN service_request_form as srf
on t.service_request_form_id = srf.id
JOIN service_group as sg
on srf.service_group_id = sg.id
JOIN worker_group as wg
on wg.service_group_id = sg.id
JOIN worker_group_member as wgm
on wg.id = wgm.worker_group_id
JOIN zrole as zr
on zr.id = wgm.role_id
JOIN permission_role as pr
on zr.id = pr.role_id
WHERE p.id = pr.permission_id
AND t.id = task_id
and wgm.user_id = 'LFudaU6jzid4SKFlU8MgFAwezyP2'
and pr.value NOT IN( 'off' , 'no' )
-- -------------------------
-- Add the needed logic
-- (From #GMB) here
-- -------------------------
);
$func$
;
-- Usage:
-- --------------
SELECT * -- p.id, p.slug
FROM public.calculates_permission_by_task(42);