How to perform a select query in a DO block?

Here more details on the workaround with the temp table that Erwin advised, which should be the real answer to the question, since the question is more geared towards "during development, how can I quickly write a code block with a select and see the results" than it is to solve this actual query (the underlying question from the beginning was "howto quickly developping/debugging table valued functions").

Although I must say I'd like to upvote the generate_series part 100 times ;)

It's possible to select the results into a temp table,
and select from the temp table outside the do block,
like this:

DO $$
    DECLARE r record;
    DECLARE i integer;

    DECLARE __iStartYear integer;
    DECLARE __iStartMonth integer;


    DECLARE __iEndYear integer;
    DECLARE __iEndMonth integer;

    DECLARE __mytext character varying(200);
BEGIN
    i:= 5;

    -- Using Raise:
    -- http://www.java2s.com/Code/PostgreSQL/Postgre-SQL/UsingRAISENOTICE.htm

    --RAISE NOTICE  'test'
    --RAISE NOTICE  'test1' || 'test2';


    __mytext := 'Test message';
    --RAISE NOTICE __mytext;
    RAISE NOTICE '%', __mytext;
    RAISE NOTICE '%', 'arg1' || 'arg2';
    RAISE NOTICE '% %', 'arg1', 'arg2';

    --SQL Standard:  "CAST( value AS text )" [or varchar]
    --PostgreSQL short-hand:  "value::text"
    __mytext := 'Test ' || i::text;
    RAISE NOTICE '%', __mytext;

    __mytext := 'mynumber: ' || CAST(i as varchar(33)) || '%';
    RAISE NOTICE '%', __mytext;

    __iStartYear := 2012;
    __iStartMonth := 4;

     __iEndYear := 2016;
     __iEndMonth := 1;

     --PERFORM  'abc';


     --CREATE TEMP TABLE mytable AS SELECT * FROM orig_table;

     --DROP TABLE table_name CASCADE;
     --DROP TABLE IF EXISTS table_name CASCADE;

     --DROP TABLE IF EXISTS tbl;
     --CREATE TEMP TABLE tbl AS SELECT 1 as a,2 as b,3 as c;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS mytable;
CREATE TEMP TABLE mytable AS


WITH RECURSIVE CTE 
AS
(

        SELECT 
             --__iStartYear AS TheStartYear 
             __iStartMonth AS TheRunningMonth 
            ,__iStartYear AS TheYear  
            ,__iStartMonth AS TheMonth 

    UNION ALL 

        SELECT 
             --CTE.TheStartYear AS TheStartYear 
             --__iStartYear AS TheStartYear 
             CTE.TheRunningMonth + 1 AS TheRunningMonth 
            --,CTE.TheStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) AS TheYear 
            ,__iStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) AS TheYear 
            ,(CTE.TheMonth + 1 -1) % 12 + 1 AS TheMonth
        FROM CTE 
        WHERE (1=1) 

        AND
        (
            CASE 
                --WHEN (CTE.TheStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) < __iEndYear 
                WHEN (__iStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) < __iEndYear 
                    THEN 1 
                --WHEN (CTE.TheStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) = __iEndYear 
                WHEN (__iStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) = __iEndYear 
                    THEN 
                        CASE 
                            WHEN ( (CTE.TheMonth + 1 -1) % 12 + 1 ) <= __iEndMonth 
                                THEN 1 
                            ELSE 0 
                        END 
                ELSE 0 
            END = 1 
        )

)


SELECT * FROM CTE; 


    -- SELECT  __iStartMonth AS TheRunningMonth; 


     --RAISE NOTICE  'The raise_test() function began.' + CAST( i AS text ) ;
    --FOR r IN SELECT table_schema, table_name FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_type = 'VIEW' AND table_schema = 'public'
    --LOOP
      --  EXECUTE 'GRANT ALL ON ' || quote_ident(r.table_schema) || '.' || quote_ident(r.table_name) || ' TO webuser';
    --END LOOP;
END$$;


SELECT * FROM mytable;

Which really is the base to quickly turn a query into a table-valued function version, which looks like this btw.:

-- SELECT * FROM tfu_V_RPT_MonthList(2012,1,2013,4);

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION tfu_V_RPT_MonthList
( 
     __iStartYear integer
    ,__iStartMonth integer
    ,__iEndYear integer
    ,__iEndMonth integer
)
  RETURNS TABLE(
     TheRunningMonth integer
    ,TheYear integer
    ,TheMonth integer
) AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
-- Declare vars here
BEGIN
RETURN QUERY 

WITH RECURSIVE CTE 
AS
(

        SELECT 
             --__iStartYear AS TheStartYear 
             __iStartMonth AS TheRunningMonth 
            ,__iStartYear AS TheYear  
            ,__iStartMonth AS TheMonth 

    UNION ALL 

        SELECT 
             --CTE.TheStartYear AS TheStartYear 
             --__iStartYear AS TheStartYear 
             CTE.TheRunningMonth + 1 AS TheRunningMonth 
            --,CTE.TheStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) AS TheYear 
            ,__iStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) AS TheYear 
            ,(CTE.TheMonth + 1 -1) % 12 + 1 AS TheMonth
        FROM CTE 
        WHERE (1=1) 

        AND
        (
            CASE 
                --WHEN (CTE.TheStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) < __iEndYear 
                WHEN (__iStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) < __iEndYear 
                    THEN 1 
                --WHEN (CTE.TheStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) = __iEndYear 
                WHEN (__iStartYear + (CTE.TheRunningMonth / 12) ) = __iEndYear 
                    THEN 
                        CASE 
                            WHEN ( (CTE.TheMonth + 1 -1) % 12 + 1 ) <= __iEndMonth 
                                THEN 1 
                            ELSE 0 
                        END 
                ELSE 0 
            END = 1 
        )

)

    SELECT * FROM CTE ;

END;
$BODY$
  LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE


--ALTER FUNCTION dbo.tfu_v_dms_desktop(character varying) OWNER TO postgres;

BTW, have a look at the SQL-Server codebloat to achive this:

SELECT 
     extract('year' FROM m) AS RPT_Year
    -- http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/functions-formatting.html#FUNCTIONS-FORMATTING-DATETIME-TABLE
    --,to_char(m, 'TMmon')
    --,to_char(m, 'TMmonth')
    ,to_char(m, 'Month') AS RPT_MonthName 
    ,m AS RPT_MonthStartDate
    ,m + INTERVAL '1 month' - INTERVAL '1 day' AS RPT_MonthEndDate 

FROM 
(
   SELECT 
        generate_series((2012::text || '-' || 4::text || '-01')::date, (2016::text || '-' || 1::text || '-01')::date, interval '1 month') AS m 
) AS g
;

Turns into this:

DECLARE @in_iStartYear integer
DECLARE @in_iStartMonth integer


DECLARE @in_iEndYear integer
DECLARE @in_iEndMonth integer

SET @in_iStartYear = 2012
SET @in_iStartMonth = 12


SET @in_iEndYear = 2016
SET @in_iEndMonth = 12



DECLARE @strOriginalLanguage AS nvarchar(200) 
DECLARE @dtStartDate AS datetime 
DECLARE @dtEndDate AS datetime 


SET @strOriginalLanguage = (SELECT @@LANGUAGE) 

SET @dtStartDate = DATEADD(YEAR, @in_iStartYear - 1900, 0) 
SET @dtStartDate = DATEADD(MONTH, @in_iStartMonth -1, @dtStartDate) 

SET @dtEndDate = DATEADD(YEAR, @in_iEndYear - 1900, 0) 
SET @dtEndDate = DATEADD(MONTH, @in_iEndMonth -1, @dtEndDate) 

SET LANGUAGE 'us_english'


;WITH CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd 
AS
(
        SELECT
             YEAR(@dtStartDate) AS RPT_Year 
            ,DATENAME(MONTH, @dtStartDate) AS RPT_MonthName 
            ,@dtStartDate AS RPT_MonthStartDate  
            ,DATEADD(DAY, -1, DATEADD(MONTH, 1, @dtStartDate)) AS RPT_MonthEndDate 

    UNION ALL

        SELECT 
             YEAR(DATEADD(MONTH, 1, CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd.RPT_MonthStartDate)) AS RPT_Year 
            ,DATENAME(MONTH, DATEADD(MONTH, 1, CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd.RPT_MonthStartDate)) AS RPT_MonthName 
            ,DATEADD(MONTH, 1, CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd.RPT_MonthStartDate) AS RPT_MonthStartDate 
            ,DATEADD(DAY, -1, DATEADD(MONTH, 1, DATEADD(MONTH, 1, CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd.RPT_MonthStartDate)) ) AS RPT_MonthEndDate 

        FROM CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd 
        WHERE DATEADD(MONTH, 1, CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd.RPT_MonthStartDate) <= @dtEndDate 
)

SELECT 
     RPT_Year 
    ,RPT_MonthName 
    ,RPT_MonthStartDate 
    ,RPT_MonthEndDate 
FROM CTE_YearsMonthStartAndEnd

(thanks Erwin !) ;)

To get records from a DO anonymous code block you can use the following technique:

DO $$
DECLARE
  _query text;
  _cursor CONSTANT refcursor := '_cursor';
BEGIN
  _query := 'SELECT * FROM table_name';
  OPEN _cursor FOR EXECUTE _query;
END
$$;

FETCH ALL FROM _cursor;

Notice

Cursors are visible in the transaction scope so you should use this within one transaction.
Name of the cursor variable should be the same as a text constant;

More about cursors. Technique source here (in Russian).

`DO` command vs. PL/pgSQL function

A DO command does not return rows. You can send NOTICES or RAISE other messages (using default LANGUAGE plpgsql), or you can write to a (temporary) table and later SELECT from it to get around this.

But really, create a function instead, where you can define a return type with the RETURNS clause and/or OUT and INOUT parameters and return from the function in various ways. Related:

Returning from a function with OUT parameter

If you don't want a function saved and visible for other connections, consider a "temporary" function, which is an undocumented but well established feature:

How to create a temporary function in PostgreSQL?

`generate_series()` for problem at hand

For the problem at hand you don't seem to need any of this. Use this simple query instead:

SELECT row_number() OVER ()    AS running_month
     , extract('year'  FROM m) AS year
     , extract('month' FROM m) AS month
FROM   generate_series(timestamp '2012-04-01'
                     , timestamp '2016-01-01'
                     , interval '1 month') m;

db<>fiddle here

Why?

Generating time series between two dates in PostgreSQL

How to perform a select query in a DO block?

`DO` command vs. PL/pgSQL function

`generate_series()` for problem at hand

Tags:

Sql

Postgresql

Plpgsql

Generate Series

Postgresql 9.1

Related

Recent Posts

How to perform a select query in a DO block?

DO command vs. PL/pgSQL function

generate_series() for problem at hand

Tags:

Sql

Postgresql

Plpgsql

Generate Series

Postgresql 9.1

Related

`DO` command vs. PL/pgSQL function

`generate_series()` for problem at hand