Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

unordained wrote:

> Thanks, you've provided me with a good example of something we could use user-defined types for (in
> this case, a "tuple" type with a N-field constructor.)
>

Fair enough. :)

> On the other hand, it would also imply the need for va_arg-like arguments, which ... isn't really
> compatible with the way Firebird stores the descriptions of parameters to known functions. (As I
> see no way for it to know about functions that can take, and use, any number of parameters.)
>
> But I still think it's a good idea, if unlikely to happen in any sort of 'clean' way.
>

I'm afraid I know too little of the inner workings of FireBird to be
able to follow your discussion here, but what you say sounds like it
could be an interesting development, if it ever gets implemented.

> Note that your last query can also be done as a join (as that's really what it is anyway) --
> matching on several fields at once, but with hardcoded data for the join-to table. You could do
> that (assuming it worked, which maybe it will in FB2?) as
>
> select a, b, c from table inner join
> select 1 bob, 2 larry from rdb$database
> union
> select 2 bob, 1 larry from rdb$database
> union
> select 4 bob, 6 larry from rdb$database
> on d = bob and e = larry;
>

Well, as you say, that doesn't (currently) work, and besides, it's a
significantly more obscure syntax. Also, what do you mean by "select 4
bob, 6 larry"? Did you forget the "as" or is this a new syntax I'm not
aware of?

--
Best regards,
Jonathan Neve
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