Postgres Return NULL Table

Question

I have a Postgres function which returns a table "RETURNS TABLE......"

There is some business rules in place in the code. If certain conditions are not met, I want to return just an empty record set. Is there a simple way to do this? Or do I need to select a NULL for each column returned?

Right now if I try to return just NULL, it complains: ERROR: structure of query does not match function result type.

Without seeing the code it is hard to say. If you are selecting from another table could you just do a SELECT that you know does not return anything? — Adrian Klaver
– Adrian Klaver, Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 0:12
Hi, Welcome to SO. Please ensure you include the Minimum Reproducible Example so that we can ensure we assist you as best as we can. — Joshua
– Joshua, Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 3:36

Laurenz Albe · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-23 02:54:51Z

5

Assuming you are using PL/pgSQL, you can use a plain RETURN; statement without an argument to return an empty result set.

answered Dec 23, 2020 at 2:54

Laurenz Albe

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2 Comments

Landon Statis Over a year ago

Thanks! Looks like a RETURN statement by itself will ignore the actual RECORD layout, and just give an empty set. Much appreciated!!!

Laurenz Albe Over a year ago

That ignores nothing. In set returning functions, you return a row with RETURN NEXT; and end the result set with RETURN;.

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