database - Store query result in a variable using in PL/pgSQL

Question

How to assign the result of a query to a variable in PL/pgSQL, the procedural language of PostgreSQL?

I have a function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION test(x numeric)
RETURNS character varying AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
name   character varying(255);
begin
 name ='SELECT name FROM test_table where id='||x;

 if(name='test')then
  --do somthing
 else
  --do the else part
 end if;
end;
return -- return my process result here
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE

In the above function I need to store the result of this query:

'SELECT name FROM test_table where id='||x;

to the variable name.

How to process this?

Answer 1

I think you're looking for SELECT select_expressions INTO:

select test_table.name into name from test_table where id = x;

That will pull the name from test_table where id is your function's argument and leave it in the name variable. Don't leave out the table name prefix on test_table.name or you'll get complaints about an ambiguous reference.