PL/pgSQL

Article summary

PL/pgSQL (Procedural Language/PostgreSQL) is a procedural programming language supported by the PostgreSQL ORDBMS. It closely resembles Oracle's PL/SQL language. Implemented by Jan Wieck, PL/pgSQL first appeared with PostgreSQL 6.4, released on October 30, 1998. Version 9 also implements some ISO SQL/PSM features, like overloading of SQL-invoked functions and procedures. PL/pgSQL, as a fully featured programming language, allows much more procedural control than SQL, including the ability to use loops and other control structures. SQL statements and triggers can call functions created in the PL/pgSQL language. The design of PL/pgSQL aimed to allow PostgreSQL users to perform more complex operations and computations than SQL, while providing ease of use. The language is able to be defined as trusted by the server. PL/pgSQL is one of the programming languages included in the standard PostgreSQL distribution, the others being PL/Tcl, PL/Perl and PL/Python. In addition, many others are available from third parties, including PL/Java, PL/pgPSM, PL/php, PL/R, PL/Ruby, PL/sh, PL/Lua, Postmodern (based on Common Lisp) and PL/v8. PostgreSQL uses Bison as its parser, making it easy to port many open-source languages, as well as to reuse code.

Key claims

1. release date: 1998-10-30 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. The record states that the release date is "1998-10-30". What evidence would count against this claim?
3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

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