Add trivial NULL statement to plpgsql, for Oracle compatibility.

doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml

 <!--
-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml,v 1.45 2004/08/08 22:40:46 tgl Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml,v 1.46 2004/08/16 17:52:06 tgl Exp $
 -->
 
 <chapter id="plpgsql"> 
@@ -1098,6 +1098,52 @@ PERFORM create_mv('cs_session_page_requests_mv', my_query);
     </para>
    </sect2>
 
+   <sect2 id="plpgsql-statements-null">
+    <title>Doing Nothing At All</title>
+
+    <para>
+     Sometimes a placeholder statement that does nothing is useful.
+     For example, it can indicate that one arm of an if/then/else
+     chain is deliberately empty.  For this purpose, use the
+     <command>NULL</command> statement:
+
+<synopsis>
+NULL;
+</synopsis>
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+     For example, the following two fragments of code are equivalent:
+<programlisting>
+    BEGIN
+        y := x / 0;
+    EXCEPTION
+        WHEN division_by_zero THEN
+            NULL;  -- ignore the error
+    END;
+</programlisting>
+
+<programlisting>
+    BEGIN
+        y := x / 0;
+    EXCEPTION
+        WHEN division_by_zero THEN  -- ignore the error
+    END;
+</programlisting>
+     Which is preferable is a matter of taste.
+    </para>
+
+    <note>
+     <para>
+      In Oracle's PL/SQL, empty statement lists are not allowed, and so
+      <command>NULL</> statements are <emphasis>required</> for situations
+      such as this.  <application>PL/pgSQL</application> allows you to
+      just write nothing, instead.
+     </para>
+    </note>
+
+   </sect2>
+
    <sect2 id="plpgsql-statements-executing-dyn">
     <title>Executing Dynamic Commands</title>
 
@@ -1129,7 +1175,7 @@ EXECUTE <replaceable class="command">command-string</replaceable>;
     <para>
     When working with dynamic commands you will often have to handle escaping
     of single quotes.  The recommended method for quoting fixed text in your
-    function body is dollar quoting.  If you have legacy code which does
+    function body is dollar quoting.  If you have legacy code that does
     not use dollar quoting, please refer to the
     overview in <xref linkend="plpgsql-quote-tips">, which can save you
     some effort when translating said code to a more reasonable scheme.
@@ -1158,14 +1204,15 @@ EXECUTE <replaceable class="command">command-string</replaceable>;
     </para>
 
     <para>
-     An example (this assumes that you are using dollar quoting, so the
-     quote marks need not be doubled):
+     An example (this assumes that you are using dollar quoting for the
+     function as a whole, so the quote marks need not be doubled):
 <programlisting>
 EXECUTE 'UPDATE tbl SET '
         || quote_ident(colname)
         || ' = '
         || quote_literal(newvalue)
-        || ' WHERE ...';
+        || ' WHERE key = '
+        || quote_literal(keyvalue);
 </programlisting>
     </para>
 
@@ -1193,7 +1240,8 @@ EXECUTE 'UPDATE tbl SET '
         || quote_ident(colname)
         || ' = $$'
         || newvalue
-        || '$$ WHERE ...';
+        || '$$ WHERE key = '
+        || quote_literal(keyvalue);
 </programlisting>
      because it would break if the contents of <literal>newvalue</>
      happened to contain <literal>$$</>.  The same objection would

src/pl/plpgsql/src/gram.y

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  *						  procedural language
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/pl/plpgsql/src/gram.y,v 1.59 2004/07/31 23:04:56 tgl Exp $
+ *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/pl/plpgsql/src/gram.y,v 1.60 2004/08/16 17:52:06 tgl Exp $
  *
  *	  This software is copyrighted by Jan Wieck - Hamburg.
  *
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ static	void check_assignable(PLpgSQL_datum *datum);
 %type <stmt>	stmt_return stmt_return_next stmt_raise stmt_execsql
 %type <stmt>	stmt_for stmt_select stmt_perform
 %type <stmt>	stmt_dynexecute stmt_getdiag
-%type <stmt>	stmt_open stmt_fetch stmt_close
+%type <stmt>	stmt_open stmt_fetch stmt_close stmt_null
 
 %type <exceptions>	exception_sect proc_exceptions
 %type <exception>	proc_exception
@@ -591,6 +591,8 @@ proc_sect		:
 				;
 
 proc_stmts		: proc_stmts proc_stmt
+						{
+							if ($2 != NULL)
 							{
 								if ($1->stmts_used == $1->stmts_alloc)
 								{
@@ -598,7 +600,7 @@ proc_stmts		: proc_stmts proc_stmt
 									$1->stmts = realloc($1->stmts, sizeof(PLpgSQL_stmt *) * $1->stmts_alloc);
 								}
 								$1->stmts[$1->stmts_used++] = $2;
-
+							}
 							$$ = $1;
 						}
 				| proc_stmt
@@ -608,13 +610,13 @@ proc_stmts		: proc_stmts proc_stmt
 							new = malloc(sizeof(PLpgSQL_stmts));
 							memset(new, 0, sizeof(PLpgSQL_stmts));
 
-								new->stmts_alloc = 64;
-								new->stmts_used  = 1;
+							new->stmts_alloc = 32;
 							new->stmts = malloc(sizeof(PLpgSQL_stmt *) * new->stmts_alloc);
-								new->stmts[0] = $1;
 
-								$$ = new;
+							if ($1 != NULL)
+								new->stmts[new->stmts_used++] = $1;
 
+							$$ = new;
 						}
 				;
 
@@ -654,6 +656,8 @@ proc_stmt		: pl_block ';'
 						{ $$ = $1; }
 				| stmt_close
 						{ $$ = $1; }
+				| stmt_null
+						{ $$ = $1; }
 				;
 
 stmt_perform	: K_PERFORM lno expr_until_semi
@@ -1493,6 +1497,13 @@ stmt_close		: K_CLOSE lno cursor_variable ';'
 					}
 				;
 
+stmt_null		: K_NULL ';'
+					{
+						/* We do not bother building a node for NULL */
+						$$ = NULL;
+					}
+				;
+
 cursor_varptr	: T_SCALAR
 					{
 						if (yylval.scalar->dtype != PLPGSQL_DTYPE_VAR)