CREATE FUNCTION

The CREATE FUNCTION statement defines a user-defined function at the current server.

The following types of functions can be defined:

  • External Scalar

    The function is written in a programming language such as C or Java™ and returns a scalar value. The external program is referenced by a function defined at the current server along with various attributes of the function. See CREATE FUNCTION (external scalar).

  • External Table

    The function is written in a programming language such as C or Java and returns a set of rows. The external program is referenced by a function defined at the current server along with various attributes of the function. See CREATE FUNCTION (external table).

  • Sourced

    The function is implemented by invoking another function (built-in, external, sourced, or SQL) that already exists at the current server. A sourced function can return a scalar result, or the result of an aggregate function. See CREATE FUNCTION (sourced). The function inherits attributes of the underlying source function.

  • SQL Scalar

    The function is written exclusively in SQL and returns a scalar value. The body of an SQL function is written in the SQL procedural language, SQL PL. The function body is defined at the current server along with various attributes of the function. See CREATE FUNCTION (SQL scalar).

  • SQL Table

    The function is written exclusively in SQL and returns a set of rows. The body of an SQL function is written in the SQL procedural language, SQL PL. The function body is defined at the current server along with various attributes of the function. See CREATE FUNCTION (SQL table).

Notes

Choosing the schema and function name: If a qualified function name is specified, the schema-name cannot be one of the system schemas (see Schemas). If function-name is not qualified, it is implicitly qualified with the default schema name.

The unqualified function name must not be one of the following names reserved for system use even if they are specified as delimited identifiers:

Defining the parameters: The input parameters for the function are specified as a list within parenthesis.

The maximum number of parameters allowed in CREATE FUNCTION is Start of change2000End of change.

A function can have no input parameters. In this case, an empty set of parenthesis must be specified, for example:

    CREATE FUNCTION WOOFER()

The data type of the result of the function is specified in the RETURNS clause for the function.

  • Choosing data types for parameters: When choosing the data types of the input and result parameters for a function, the rules of promotion that can affect the values of the parameters need to be considered. See Promotion of data types. For example, a constant that is one of the input arguments to the function might have a built-in data type that is different from the data type that the function expects, and more significantly, might not be promotable to that expected data type. Based on the rules of promotion, using the following data types is recommended:
    • INTEGER instead of SMALLINT
    • DOUBLE instead of REAL
    • VARCHAR instead of CHAR
    • VARGRAPHIC instead of GRAPHIC

    For portability of functions across platforms that are not Db2® for i, do not use the following data type names, which might have different representations on different platforms:

    • FLOAT. Use DOUBLE or REAL instead.
    • NUMERIC. Use DECIMAL instead.
  • Specifying AS LOCATOR for a parameter: Passing a locator instead of a value can result in fewer bytes being passed in or out of the function. This can be useful when the value of the parameter is very large. The AS LOCATOR clause specifies that a locator to the value of the parameter is passed instead of the actual value. Specify AS LOCATOR only for parameters that have a LOB or XML data type or a distinct type based on a LOB or XML data type and only when LANGUAGE JAVA is not in effect.

    The AS LOCATOR clause has no effect on determining whether data types can be promoted, nor does it affect the function signature, which is used in function resolution.

    AS LOCATOR cannot be specified for SQL functions.

Determining the uniqueness of functions in a schema: The same name can be used for more than one function in a schema if the function signature of each function is unique. The function signature is the qualified function name combined with the number and data types of the input parameters. The combination of name, schema name, the number of parameters, and the data type each parameter (without regard for other attributes such as length, precision, scale, or CCSID) must not identify a user-defined function that exists at the current server. The return type has no impact on the determining uniqueness of a function. Two different schemas can each contain a function with the same name that have the same data types for all of their corresponding data types. However, a schema must not contain two functions with the same name that have the same data types for all of their corresponding data types.

When determining whether corresponding data types match, the database manager does not consider any length, precision, or scale attributes in the comparison. The database manager considers the synonyms of data types a match. For example, REAL and FLOAT, and DOUBLE and FLOAT are considered a match. Therefore, CHAR(8) and CHAR(35) are considered to be the same, as are DECIMAL(11,2), and DECIMAL(4,3). Furthermore, the character and graphic types are considered to be the same. For example, the following are considered to be the same type: CHAR and GRAPHIC, VARCHAR and VARGRAPHIC, and CLOB and DBCLOB. CHAR(13) and GRAPHIC(8) are considered to be the same type. An error is returned if the signature of the function being created is a duplicate of a signature for an existing user-defined function with the same name and schema.

Assume that the following statements are executed to create four functions in the same schema. The second and fourth statements fail because they create functions that are duplicates of the functions that the first and third statements created.

CREATE FUNCTION PART (INT, CHAR(15) ...
CREATE FUNCTION PART (INTEGER, CHAR(40) ...

CREATE FUNCTION ANGLE (DECIMAL(12,2)) ...
CREATE FUNCTION ANGLE (DEC(10,7)) ...

Specifying a specific name for a function: When defining multiple functions with the same name and schema (with different parameter lists), it is recommended that a specific name also be specified. The specific name can be used to uniquely identify the function such as when sourcing on this function, dropping the function, or commenting on the function. However, the function cannot be invoked by its specific name.

The specific name is implicitly or explicitly qualified with a schema name. If a schema name is not specified on CREATE FUNCTION, it is the same as the explicit or implicit schema name of the function name (function-name). If a schema name is specified, it must be the same as the explicit or implicit schema name of the function name. The name, including the schema name must not identify the specific name of another function or procedure that exists at the current server.

If a specific name is not specified, it is set to the function name. If a function or procedure with that specific name already exists, a unique name is generated similar to the rules used to generate unique table names.

Extending or overriding a built-in function:

Giving a user-defined function the same name as a built-in function is not a recommended practice unless the functionality of the built-in function needs to be extended or overridden.

  • Extending the functionality of existing built-in functions:

    Create the new user-defined function with the same name as the built-in function, and a unique function signature. For example, a user-defined function similar to the built-in function ROUND that accepts the distinct type MONEY as input rather than the built-in numeric types might be necessary. In this case, the signature for the new user-defined function named ROUND is different from all the function signatures supported by the built-in ROUND function.

  • Overriding a built-in function:

    Create the new user-defined function with the same name and signature as an existing built-in function. The new function has the same name and data type as the corresponding parameters of the built-in function but implements different logic. For example, a user-defined function similar to the built-in function ROUND that uses different rules for rounding than the built-in ROUND function might be necessary. In this case, the signature for the new user-defined function named ROUND will be the same as a signature that is supported by the built-in ROUND function.

    Once a built-in function has been overridden, if the schema for the new function appears in the SQL path before the system schemas, the database manager may choose a user-defined function rather than the built-in function. An application that uses the unqualified function name and was previously successful using the built-in function of that name might fail, or perhaps even worse, appear to run successfully but provide a different result if the user-defined function is chosen by the database manager rather than the built-in function.

    The DISTINCT keyword can be passed on the invocation of a user-defined function that is sourced on one of the built-in aggregate functions. For example, assume that MY_AVG is a user-defined function that is sourced on the built-in AVG function. The user-defined function could be invoked with MY_AVG (DISTINCT expression). This results in the underlying built-in AVG function being invoked with the DISTINCT keyword.

Special registers in functions: The settings of the special registers of the invoker are inherited by the function on invocation and restored upon return to the invoker. Special registers may be changed in a function that can execute SQL statements, but these changes do not affect the caller.

Creating a secure function: Db2 treats the SECURED attribute as an assertion that declares that the user has established an audit procedure for all changes to the user-defined function. Db2 assume that such an audit control procedure is in place for all subsequent ALTER FUNCTION statements.

Invoking other user-defined functions in a secure function: When a secure user-defined function is referenced in an SQL statement that references a table that is using row access control or column access control, and if the secure user-defined function invokes other user-defined functions, the nested user-defined functions are not validated as secure. If those nested functions can access sensitive data, a user authorized who has security administrator authority i needs to ensure that those functions are allowed to access that data and should ensure that a change control audit procedure has been established for all changes to those functions.

MODIFIES SQL DATA and EXTERNAL ACTION functions: If a MODIFIES SQL DATA or EXTERNAL ACTION function is invoked in other than the outermost select list, the results are unpredictable since the number of times the function is invoked will vary depending on the access plan used.

Functions and adopted authority: Fenced functions run in separate threads. If ALLOW PARALLEL is specified for a NOT FENCED function, that function may also run in a separate thread. Functions that run in separate threads will not run under any adopted authority that might be specified by the invoking application.

Restore considerations: When a function's associated program or service program is saved and subsequently restored and the object was updated with the function attributes when the function was created, the saved attributes will be processed and possibly changed during the restore.

If the 'Saved library' (SAVLIB) of the program or service program is different from the 'Restore to library' (RSTLIB), the function's schema name, specific schema name, and the external name may be changed as a result of the restore.
  • If the saved function schema name and the library name of the saved object match, the function schema will be changed to the 'Restore to library' (RSTLIB). Otherwise, the function schema name is the saved function schema name.
  • The specific schema name is always the same as function schema name.
  • If the saved EXTERNAL NAME library and the library name of the saved object match, the EXTERNAL NAME library will be changed to the 'Restore to library' (RSTLIB). Otherwise, the EXTERNAL NAME library is the saved library name. If the saved EXTERNAL NAME library is *LIBL, it will not change.
If the same function signature already exists in the catalog:
  • If the external program name or service program name is the same as the one that already exists in the catalog, the information in the catalog for that procedure will be replaced with the saved attributes (including the specific name).
  • Otherwise, the saved attributes are not restored, and a warning (SQL9015) is issued.

If the same specific name already exists in the catalog, a warning is issued and a new specific name is generated. Otherwise, the specific name of the function is preserved.