USE OF VARIABLES IN postgreSQL

[saumya]

I HAVE A PROBLEM REGARDING DECLARATION/ INITIALISATION OF VARIABLES IN POSTGRESQL FUNCTIONS AND PROCEDURES. MY CODE PRESENTLY LOOKS LIKE

CREATE FUNCTION ins_into_std_values() RETURNS void AS
$BODY$
myflag CHAR(1) :='y';
dbms_output.put_line('enter the values sequentially');
    loop
            if myflag='n' then 
            exit;
            end if;
        insert into std_values
        values('&tree_species_name','&location',&p,&c1,&c2,&q,&c3,&a,&b,&sp_gravity,&exp_factor);
        commit;
        dbms_output.put_line('records inserted sucessfully');
        dbms_output.put_line('enter n to exit or y to continue entering values');
        myflag:= '&y or n';
    end loop;
commit;
$BODY$
LANGUAGE 'sql' VOLATILE;
 

BUT IT SHOWS ERROR AT INITIALISATION OF MYFLAG... CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO DECLARE VARIABLES IN POSTGRESQL..

[michaelb]

saumya, please read the Posting Guidelines at the top of the forum and use the CODE tags in your future postings.

[michaelb]

Your code has to with Oracle more than with Postgresql.
There's no dbms_output.put_line in Postgresql, and you probably want to use plpgsql, not sql for this function.

Please start with the PostgreSQL manual:
CREATE FUNCTION
Writing SQL Functions
Procedural languages
plpgsql procedural language
Declarations