How to call a function, PostgreSQL

I'm trying to use a function with PostgreSQL to save some data. Here is the create script:

-- Function: "saveUser"(integer, character varying, character varying, character varying, character varying, character varying)

-- DROP FUNCTION "saveUser"(integer, character varying, character varying, character varying, character varying, character varying);

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION "saveUser"("pUserID" integer, "pName" character
varying, "pLastName" character varying, "pUserName" character varying, 
"pPassword" character varying, "peMail" character varying)
RETURNS boolean AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
SELECT 1
FROM "USERS"
WHERE "userID" = $1;

IF FOUND THEN
UPDATE "USERS" 
    SET     "name" = $2,
    "lastName" = $3,
    "userName" = $4,
    "password" = $5,
    "eMail" = $6
WHERE "userID" = $1;
ELSE
    INSERT INTO "USERS"
    ("name", "lastName", "userName", "password", "eMail")
    VALUES
        ($2, $3, $4, $5, $6);
END IF;
END;$BODY$
  LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' VOLATILE
  COST 100;
ALTER FUNCTION "saveUser"(integer, character varying, character varying, character varying, character varying, character varying) OWNER TO postgres;

PostreSQL Documentation states that to call a function which does not return any resultset, it is sufficient to write only its name and properties. So I try to call the function like this:

"saveUser"(3, 'asd','asd','asd','asd','asd');

But I get the error below:

ERROR:  syntax error at or near ""saveUser""
LINE 1: "saveUser"(3, 'asd','asd','asd','asd','asd')
     ^

********** Error **********

ERROR: syntax error at or near ""saveUser""
SQL state: 42601
Character: 1

I have other functions which return a resultset. I use SELECT * FROM "fnc"(...) to call them and it works. Why am I getting this error?


EDIT: I am using pgAdmin III Query tool and trying to execute the SQL Statements there.


The function call still should be a valid SQL statement:

SELECT "saveUser"(3, 'asd','asd','asd','asd','asd');

For Postgresql you can use PERFORM. PERFORM is only valid within PL/PgSQL procedure language.

DO $$ BEGIN
    PERFORM "saveUser"(3, 'asd','asd','asd','asd','asd');
END $$;

The suggestion from the postgres team:

HINT: If you want to discard the results of a SELECT, use PERFORM instead.


if your function does not want to return anything you should declare it to "return void" and then you can call it like this "perform functionName(parameter...);"


We can have two ways of calling the functions written in pgadmin for postgre sql database.

Suppose we have defined the function as below:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION helloWorld(name text) RETURNS void AS $helloWorld$
DECLARE
BEGIN
    RAISE LOG 'Hello, %', name;
END;
$helloWorld$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

We can call the function helloworld in one of the following way:

SELECT "helloworld"('myname');

SELECT public.helloworld('myname')