Function mapping (original) (raw)

Functions

A Java function is declared with the name of a class and a public static method on that class. The class will be resolved using the classpath that has been defined for the schema where the function is declared. If no classpath has been defined for that schema, the public schema is used. Please note that the_system classloader_ will take precedence always. There is no way to override classes loaded with that loader.

The following function can be declared to access the static methodgetProperty on the java.lang.System class:

CREATE FUNCTION getsysprop(VARCHAR) RETURNS VARCHAR AS 'java.lang.System.getProperty' LANGUAGE java;

SELECT getsysprop('java.version');

Both the parameters and the return value can be explicitly stated so the above example could also have been written:

CREATE FUNCTION getsysprop(VARCHAR) RETURNS VARCHAR AS 'java.lang.String=java.lang.System.getProperty(java.lang.String)' LANGUAGE java;

This way of declaring the function is useful when the default mapping is inadequate. PL/Java will use a standard PostgreSQL explicit cast when the SQL type of the parameter or return value does not correspond to the Java type defined in the mapping.

Note: the "explicit cast" here referred to is not accomplished by creating an actual SQL CAST expression, but by (mostly) equivalent means. At the time of this writing, two special cases are not yet implemented.

SQL generation

The simplest way to write the SQL function declaration that corresponds to your Java code is to have the Java compiler do it for you:

public class Hello { @Function public static String hello(String toWhom) { return "Hello, " + toWhom + "!"; } }

When this function is compiled, a "deployment descriptor" containing the right SQL function declaration is also produced. When it is included in a jar file with the compiled code, PL/Java's sqlj.install_jar function will create the SQL function declaration at the same time it loads the jar. See the fullhello world example for more.