The specific function that is referenced by a function call is determined using the following procedure.
Function Type Resolution
Select the functions to be considered from the
pg_proc system catalog. If a non-schema-qualified
function name was used, the functions
considered are those with the matching name and argument count that are
visible in the current search path (see Section 5.9.3).
If a qualified function name was given, only functions in the specified
schema are considered.
If the search path finds multiple functions of identical argument types, only the one appearing earliest in the path is considered. Functions of different argument types are considered on an equal footing regardless of search path position.
If a function is declared with a VARIADIC array parameter, and
the call does not use the VARIADIC keyword, then the function
is treated as if the array parameter were replaced by one or more occurrences
of its element type, as needed to match the call. After such expansion the
function might have effective argument types identical to some non-variadic
function. In that case the function appearing earlier in the search path is
used, or if the two functions are in the same schema, the non-variadic one is
preferred.
This creates a security hazard when calling, via qualified name
[9],
a variadic function found in a schema that permits untrusted users to create
objects. A malicious user can take control and execute arbitrary SQL
functions as though you executed them. Substitute a call bearing
the VARIADIC keyword, which bypasses this hazard. Calls
populating VARIADIC "any" parameters often have no
equivalent formulation containing the VARIADIC keyword. To
issue those calls safely, the function's schema must permit only trusted users
to create objects.
Functions that have default values for parameters are considered to match any call that omits zero or more of the defaultable parameter positions. If more than one such function matches a call, the one appearing earliest in the search path is used. If there are two or more such functions in the same schema with identical parameter types in the non-defaulted positions (which is possible if they have different sets of defaultable parameters), the system will not be able to determine which to prefer, and so an “ambiguous function call” error will result if no better match to the call can be found.
This creates an availability hazard when calling, via qualified name[9], any function found in a schema that permits untrusted users to create objects. A malicious user can create a function with the name of an existing function, replicating that function's parameters and appending novel parameters having default values. This precludes new calls to the original function. To forestall this hazard, place functions in schemas that permit only trusted users to create objects.
Check for a function accepting exactly the input argument types.
If one exists (there can be only one exact match in the set of
functions considered), use it. Lack of an exact match creates a security
hazard when calling, via qualified
name[9], a function found in a
schema that permits untrusted users to create objects. In such situations,
cast arguments to force an exact match. (Cases involving unknown
will never find a match at this step.)
If no exact match is found, see if the function call appears
to be a special type conversion request. This happens if the function call
has just one argument and the function name is the same as the (internal)
name of some data type. Furthermore, the function argument must be either
an unknown-type literal, or a type that is binary-coercible to the named
data type, or a type that could be converted to the named data type by
applying that type's I/O functions (that is, the conversion is either to or
from one of the standard string types). When these conditions are met,
the function call is treated as a form of CAST specification.
[10]
Look for the best match.
Discard candidate functions for which the input types do not match
and cannot be converted (using an implicit conversion) to match.
unknown literals are
assumed to be convertible to anything for this purpose. If only one
candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.
If any input argument is of a domain type, treat it as being of the domain's base type for all subsequent steps. This ensures that domains act like their base types for purposes of ambiguous-function resolution.
Run through all candidates and keep those with the most exact matches on input types. Keep all candidates if none have exact matches. If only one candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.
Run through all candidates and keep those that accept preferred types (of the input data type's type category) at the most positions where type conversion will be required. Keep all candidates if none accept preferred types. If only one candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.
If any input arguments are unknown, check the type categories
accepted
at those argument positions by the remaining candidates. At each position,
select the string category if any candidate accepts that category.
(This bias towards string
is appropriate since an unknown-type literal looks like a string.)
Otherwise, if all the remaining candidates accept the same type category,
select that category; otherwise fail because
the correct choice cannot be deduced without more clues.
Now discard candidates that do not accept the selected type category.
Furthermore, if any candidate accepts a preferred type in that category,
discard candidates that accept non-preferred types for that argument.
Keep all candidates if none survive these tests.
If only one candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.
If there are both unknown and known-type arguments, and all
the known-type arguments have the same type, assume that the
unknown arguments are also of that type, and check which
candidates can accept that type at the unknown-argument
positions. If exactly one candidate passes this test, use it;
else continue to the next step.
Try type compatible match describe at Section 10.7.
Note that the “best match” rules are identical for operator and function type resolution. Some examples follow.
Example 10.6. Rounding Function Argument Type Resolution
There is only one round function that takes two
arguments; it takes a first argument of type numeric and
a second argument of type integer.
So the following query automatically converts
the first argument of type integer to
numeric:
SELECT round(4, 4); round -------- 4.0000 (1 row)
That query is actually transformed by the parser to:
SELECT round(CAST (4 AS numeric), 4);
Since numeric constants with decimal points are initially assigned the
type numeric, the following query will require no type
conversion and therefore might be slightly more efficient:
SELECT round(4.0, 4);
Example 10.7. Variadic Function Resolution
CREATE FUNCTION public.variadic_example(VARIADIC numeric[]) RETURNS int LANGUAGE sql AS 'SELECT 1'; CREATE FUNCTION
This function accepts, but does not require, the VARIADIC keyword. It tolerates both integer and numeric arguments:
SELECT public.variadic_example(0),
public.variadic_example(0.0),
public.variadic_example(VARIADIC array[0.0]);
variadic_example | variadic_example | variadic_example
------------------+------------------+------------------
1 | 1 | 1
(1 row)
However, the first and second calls will prefer more-specific functions, if available:
CREATE FUNCTION public.variadic_example(numeric) RETURNS int
LANGUAGE sql AS 'SELECT 2';
CREATE FUNCTION
CREATE FUNCTION public.variadic_example(int) RETURNS int
LANGUAGE sql AS 'SELECT 3';
CREATE FUNCTION
SELECT public.variadic_example(0),
public.variadic_example(0.0),
public.variadic_example(VARIADIC array[0.0]);
variadic_example | variadic_example | variadic_example
------------------+------------------+------------------
3 | 2 | 1
(1 row)
Given the default configuration and only the first function existing, the
first and second calls are insecure. Any user could intercept them by
creating the second or third function. By matching the argument type exactly
and using the VARIADIC keyword, the third call is secure.
Example 10.8. Substring Function Type Resolution
There are several substr functions, one of which
takes types text and integer. If called
with a string constant of unspecified type, the system chooses the
candidate function that accepts an argument of the preferred category
string (namely of type text).
SELECT substr('1234', 3);
substr
--------
34
(1 row)
If the string is declared to be of type varchar, as might be the case
if it comes from a table, then the parser will try to convert it to become text:
SELECT substr(varchar '1234', 3);
substr
--------
34
(1 row)
This is transformed by the parser to effectively become:
SELECT substr(CAST (varchar '1234' AS text), 3);
The parser learns from the pg_cast catalog that
text and varchar
are binary-compatible, meaning that one can be passed to a function that
accepts the other without doing any physical conversion. Therefore, no
type conversion call is really inserted in this case.
Example 10.9. Add Months Function Type Resolution
The orafce extension provides two versions of function add_months,
one under schema pg_catalog and the other under schema oracle.
There are some slight differences between the two functions:
pg_catalog.add_months accepts date and int, returns date;
oracle.add_months accepts timestamp with time zone and int, returns timestamp.
CREATE FUNCTION pg_catalog.add_months(day date, value int)
RETURNS date ...
select pg_catalog.add_months('2021-12-23', 4);
add_months
------------
2022-04-23
(1 row)
CREATE FUNCTION oracle.add_months(TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE,INTEGER)
RETURNS TIMESTAMP ...
select oracle.add_months('2021-12-23', 4);
add_months
---------------------
2022-04-23 00:00:00
(1 row)
When the add_months function is called with the unknow type,
different functions are matched depending on the search_path.
When schema oracle is not in search_path,
it only looks for add_months in schema pg_catalog by default.
When schema oracle is in search_path, there are two versions of add_months functions available.
However, the oracle.add_months argument type timestamp with time zone is preferred type, so oracle.add_months will be selected.
select add_months('2021-12-23', 4);
add_months
------------
2022-04-23
(1 row)
set search_path="$user",public,oracle;
select add_months('2021-12-23', 4);
add_months
---------------------
2022-04-23 00:00:00
(1 row)
[9] The hazard does not arise with a non-schema-qualified name, because a search path containing schemas that permit untrusted users to create objects is not a secure schema usage pattern.
[10] The reason for this step is to support function-style cast specifications in cases where there is not an actual cast function. If there is a cast function, it is conventionally named after its output type, and so there is no need to have a special case. See CREATE CAST for additional commentary.