Thanks for the reply. However, I don't really understand how it works... Can 
you help? How should this function look like? Can I still create the type the 
same way I did for now and add something like this:

Datum mpoint_in(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
{
    char *str = PG_GETARG_CSTRING(0);
    mPoint *result;
    mPoint *finalResult;

    result = (mPoint *) create_mPoint(str);

    if (result == NULL) {
        Log ("mpoint_in: reporting error for invalid input syntax for mPoint");
        ereport(ERROR, (errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_TEXT_REPRESENTATION), 
errmsg("invalid input syntax for mPoint: \"%s\"", str)));
    }
    
    finalResult = (mPoint *)palloc(VARSIZE(result));
    memset (finalResult, 0, VARSIZE(result));
    SET_VARSIZE(finalResult, VARSIZE(result));
    memcpy((void *) VARDATA(finalResult),
           (void *) VARDATA(result),
           VARSIZE(result) - VARHDRSZ);
    
    PG_RETURN_POINTER(finalResult);
}

I should still return Datum, right? At least version 1 calling convetion says 
that. And should I change something on the SQL side?

I would appreciate any help.
Thanks.
Ivan

> Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 12:42:09 +0200
> From: klep...@svana.org
> To: i....@live.com
> CC: dal...@solfertje.student.utwente.nl; pgsql-general@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Persistence problem
> 
> On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 12:04:56PM +0200, I. B. wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > I'll try to explain with as less code as possible.
> > One of the types I wanted to create is called mpoint. This is a part of 
> > code:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > typedef struct {
> >     int4 length;
> >     int noOfUnits;
> >     void *units; // this is later casted to uPoint *
> > } mapping_t;
> > 
> 
> This is not the correct way to handle varlena types. You can create the
> datum that way, but if PostgreSQL decides to compress it (as it may
> when writing to disk) you won't be able to read it back. Notably, the
> "length" part of a varlena type is not always 4 bytes.
> 
> Make sure you have fully understood this page:
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.4/static/xfunc-c.html
> it has a number of examples dealing with variable length types. You
> MUST use the VARDATA/VARATT/etc macros to construct and read your data.
> 
> Hope this helps,
> -- 
> Martijn van Oosterhout   <klep...@svana.org>   http://svana.org/kleptog/
> > Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism,
> > when hate for people other than your own comes first. 
> >                                       - Charles de Gaulle
                                          
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service.
https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969

Reply via email to