Returning results from a function in 'select statement' format - sql

Question

I have a function that looks like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION mffcu.test_ty_hey()
RETURNS setof record
LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS $function$
Declare
cname1 text;
sql2 text;
Begin
for cname1 in
select array_to_string(useme, ', ') from (
select array_agg(column_name) as useme
from(
select column_name::text
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'crosstab_183'
and ordinal_position != 1
) as fin
) as fine
loop
sql2 := 'select distinct array['|| cname1 ||'] from mffcu.crosstab_183';
execute sql2;
end loop;
END;
$function$
I call the function with this:
select mffcu.test_ty_hey()
How do I return the results of the sql2 query without creating a table/temporary table?

Answer 1

While #Pavel is right, of course, your very convoluted function could be untangled to:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION mffcu.test_ty_hey()
RETURNS SETOF text[] LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS $func$
DECLARE
cname1 text;
BEGIN
FOR cname1 IN
SELECT column_name::text
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_name = 'crosstab_183'
AND table_schema = 'mffcu'
AND ordinal_position <> 1
LOOP
RETURN QUERY
EXECUTE format('SELECT DISTINCT ARRAY[%I::text]
FROM mffcu.crosstab_183', cname1);
END LOOP;
END
$func$
format() requires PostgreSQL 9.1 or later. In 9.0 you can substitute with:
EXECUTE 'SELECT DISTINCT ARRAY['|| quote_ident(cname1) ||'::text]
FROM mffcu.crosstab_183';
Call:
select * FROM mffcu.test_ty_hey();
By casting each column to text we arrive at a consistent data type that can be used to declare the RETURN type. This compromise has to be made to return various data types from one function. Every data type can be cast to text, so that's the obvious common ground.
BTW, I have trouble imagining what the ARRAY wrapper around every single value should be good for. I suppose you could just drop that.

Answer 2

PostgreSQL functions should to have fixed result type before execution. You cannot specify type late in execution. There is only two workarounds - using temp tables or using cursors.
PLpgSQL language is not good for too generic routines - it good for implementation strict and clean business rules. And bad for generic crosstab calculations or generic auditing or similar generic task. It works, but code is slower and usually not well maintainable.
but reply for your query, you can use a output cursors
example http://okbob.blogspot.cz/2008/08/using-cursors-for-generating-cross.html