Calling a function that returns a refcursor - sql

Question

I am using Postgresql 8.3 and have the following simple function that will return a refcursor to the client
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION function_1() RETURNS refcursor AS $$
DECLARE
ref_cursor REFCURSOR;
BEGIN
OPEN ref_cursor FOR SELECT * FROM some_table;
RETURN (ref_cursor);
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Now , I can use the following SQL commands to call this function and manipulate the returned cursor ,but the cursor name is automatically generated by the PostgreSQL
BEGIN;
SELECT function_1(); --It will output the generated cursor name , for example , "<unnamed portal 11>" ;
FETCH 4 from "<unnamed portal 11>";
COMMIT;
Besides explicitly declaring the cursor name as the input parameter of the function as described by 38.7.3.5. Returning Cursors, can I declare my own cursor name and use this cursor name to manipulate the returned cursor instead of Postgresql automatically generates for me ?
If not, are there any commands that can get the generated cursor name ?

Answer 1

I'm not quite sure from wich version of Postgre this is available (in 8.4 it is valid) but i found quite easiest to define the cursor name when you declare it, like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION function_1() RETURNS refcursor AS $$
DECLARE
ref_cursor REFCURSOR := 'mycursor';
BEGIN
OPEN ref_cursor FOR SELECT * FROM some_table;
RETURN (ref_cursor);
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
And then you can get it like this:
BEGIN;
SELECT function_1();
FETCH 4 from mycursor;
COMMIT;
I find this method less cumbersome.
Hope that helps.

Answer 2

Yes, use:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION function_1(refcursor) RETURNS refcursor AS $$
BEGIN
OPEN $1 FOR SELECT * FROM some_table;
RETURN $1;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
Result:
SELECT function_1('myowncursorname');
function_1
-----------------
myowncursorname
(1 row)
It looks like auto-generated name is <unnamed portal n>, where n is natural number (from 1).
EDIT:
As another way you could use pg_cursors view with such query to obtain generated cursor name:
SELECT name FROM pg_cursors WHERE statement LIKE 'SELECT * FROM some_table';
For example:
BEGIN;
SELECT function_1();
SELECT name FROM pg_cursors WHERE statement LIKE 'SELECT * FROM some_table';
COMMIT;
Result:
function_1
--------------------
<unnamed portal 3>
(1 row)
name
--------------------
<unnamed portal 3>
(1 row)