PostgreSQL 8.2.20 Documentation
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# Chapter 37. PL/pgSQL - SQL Procedural Language

PL/pgSQL is a loadable procedural language for the PostgreSQL database system. The design goals of PL/pgSQL were to create a loadable procedural language that

- can be used to create functions and trigger procedures,

- adds control structures to the SQL language,

- can perform complex computations,

- inherits all user-defined types, functions, and operators,

- can be defined to be trusted by the server,

- is easy to use.

Except for input/output conversion and calculation functions for user-defined types, anything that can be defined in C language functions can also be done with PL/pgSQL. For example, it is possible to create complex conditional computation functions and later use them to define operators or use them in index expressions.

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