Postgres function passing array of strings

Question

I have the Postgres function below to return some info from my DB. I need the p_ic parameter to be able to take an array of strings.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION eddie.getinv(
    IN p_ic character varying[],
    IN p_id character varying)
  RETURNS TABLE(cnt bigint, actualid text, actualcompany text, part text, daysinstock double precision, condition text, 
                ic text, price numeric, stock text, quantity bigint, location text, comments text) AS
$
BEGIN
    RETURN QUERY
        WITH cte AS (
                SELECT 
                CASE WHEN partnerslist IS NULL OR partnerslist = '' THEN
                    'XX99'
                ELSE 
                    partnerslist
                END AS a
            FROM support.members WHERE id = p_id
        ), ctegroup AS
        (    
            SELECT 
               u.id AS actualid,
              (SELECT m.company || ' (' || m.id ||')' FROM support.members m WHERE m.id = u.id) AS actualcompany,
              u.itemname AS part, 
              DATE_PART('day', CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - u.datein::timestamp) AS daysinstock, 
              TRIM(u.grade)::character varying AS condition, 
              u.vstockno::text AS stock, 
              u.holl::text AS ic, 
              CASE WHEN u.rprice > 0 THEN 
                    u.rprice 
              ELSE 
                    NULL 
              END AS price, 
              u.quantity, 
              u.location,
              u.comments::text
            FROM public.net u 
            WHERE u.holl in (p_ic)
              AND visibledate <= now() 
              AND u.id = ANY(REGEXP_SPLIT_TO_ARRAY(p_id ||','|| (SELECT a FROM cte), ','))
            ORDER BY u.itemname, u.id
        )  
        SELECT 
            COUNT(ctegroup.ic) OVER(PARTITION BY ctegroup.ic ORDER BY ctegroup.ic) AS cnt,
            actualid,
            MAX(actualcompany) AS actualcompany,
            MAX(part) AS part,
            MAX(daysinstock) AS daysinstock, 
            STRING_AGG(condition,',') AS condition, 
            MAX(ic) AS ic,
            MAX(price) AS price,
            STRING_AGG(stock,',') AS stock, 
            SUM(quantity) AS qty, 
            STRING_AGG(location,',') AS location,
            STRING_AGG(comments,';') AS comments
        FROM ctegroup
        GROUP BY part, actualid, ic
        ORDER BY actualid;
END; $

LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

I am calling it from the pgAdminIII Query window like this:

SELECT * FROM eddie.getinv(array['536-01036','536-01033L','536-01037'], 'N40')

But it is returning this error:

ERROR:  operator does not exist: text = character varying[]`
LINE 28:             WHERE u.holl in (p_ic)`

How do I fix this, or am I calling it incorrectly? I will be calling it from a PHP API function similar to this:

$id = 'N40';
$ic = array('536-01036','536-01033L','536-01037');

$sql = "SELECT * FROM eddie.getinv(array['". implode("','",$ic)."'], '".$id."');";

try 
{       
    $results = pg_query($sql);
    if(pg_num_rows($results) == 0) {
        $rows = [];
    }
    else
    {
        $data = pg_fetch_all($results);
        foreach($data as $item)
        {                    
            $rows[$item["ic"]][] = $item;
        }
    }
    pg_free_result($results);
}
catch (Exception $e) 
{
    $err = array("message"=>$e->getMessage(), "code"=> $e->getCode(), "error"=>$e->__toString().",\n".print_r($_REQUEST, true));
    echo json_encode($err);
}
echo json_encode($rows);

Answer 1

It looks like your array is being passed to the function just fine. The problem is in your query.

IN () clauses expect a comma-separated list of values. When you put an array in there, it's interpreted as a one-element list, where the value is the whole array. In other words, u.holl in (p_ic) will check if u.holl is equal to p_ic, and the comparison fails due to the type mismatch.

If you want to test the value against the contents of the array, use u.holl = ANY(p_ic).