For the UDF mechanism to work, functions must be written in C or C++ and your
operating system must support dynamic loading. The MySQL source
distribution includes a file `sql/udf_example.cc' that defines 5 new
functions. Consult this file to see how UDF calling conventions work.
For each function that you want to use in SQL statements, you should define
corresponding C (or C++) functions. In the discussion below, the name
``xxx'' is used for an example function name. To distinquish between SQL and
C/C++ usage, XXX()
(uppercase) indicates a SQL function call, and
xxx()
(lowercase) indicates a C/C++ function call.
The C/C++ functions that you write to implement the inferface for
XXX()
are:
xxx()
(required)
-
The main function. This is where the function result is computed.
The correspondence between the SQL type and return type of your C/C++
function is shown below:
SQL type | C/C++ type
|
STRING | char *
|
INTEGER | long long
|
REAL | double
|
xxx_init()
(optional)
-
The initialization function for
xxx()
. It can be used to:
-
Check the number of arguments to
XXX()
-
Check that the arguments are of a required type, or, alternatively,
tell MySQL to coerce arguments to the types you want when
the main function is called
-
Allocate any memory required by the main function
-
Specify the maximum length of the result
-
Specify (for
REAL
functions) the maximum number of decimals
-
Specify whether or not the result can be
NULL
xxx_deinit()
(optional)
-
The deinitialization function for
xxx()
. It should deallocate any
memory allocated by the initialization function.
When a SQL statement invokes XXX()
, MySQL calls the
initialization function xxx_init()
to let it perform any required
setup, such as argument checking or memory allocation. If xxx_init()
returns an error, the SQL statement is aborted with an error message and the
main and deinitialization functions are not called. Otherwise, the main
function xxx()
is called once for each row. After all rows have been
processed, the deinitialization function xxx_deinit()
is called so it
can perform any required cleanup.
All functions must be thread-safe (not just the main function,
but the initialization and deinitialization functions as well). This means
that you are not allowed to allocate any global or static variables that
change! If you need memory, you should allocate it in xxx_init()
and free it in xxx_deinit()
.
The main function should be declared as shown below. Note that the return
type and parameters differ, depending on whether you will declare the SQL
function XXX()
to return STRING
, INTEGER
or REAL
in the CREATE FUNCTION
statement:
For STRING
functions:
char *xxx(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
char *result, unsigned long *length,
char *is_null, char *error);
For INTEGER
functions:
long long xxx(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
char *is_null, char *error);
For REAL
functions:
double xxx(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args,
char *is_null, char *error);
The initialization and deinitialization functions are declared like this:
my_bool xxx_init(UDF_INIT *initid, UDF_ARGS *args, char *message);
void xxx_deinit(UDF_INIT *initid);
The initid
parameter is passed to all three functions. It points to a
UDF_INIT
structure that is used to communicate information between
functions. The UDF_INIT
structure members are listed below. The
initialization function should fill in any members that it wishes to change.
(To use the default for a member, leave it unchanged.)
my_bool maybe_null
-
xxx_init()
should set maybe_null
to 1
if xxx()
can return NULL
. The default value is 1
if any of the
arguments are declared maybe_null
.
unsigned int decimals
-
Number of decimals. The default value is the maximum number of decimals in
the arguments passed to the main function. (For example, if the function is
passed
1.34
, 1.345
and 1.3
, the default would be 3,
since 1.345
has 3 decimals.
unsigned int max_length
-
The maximum length of the string result. The default value differs depending
on the result type of the function. For string functions, the default is the
length of the longest argument. For integer functions, the default is 21
digits. For real functions, the default is 13 plus the number of decimals
indicated by
initid->decimals
. (For numeric functions, the length
includes any sign or decimal point characters.)
char *ptr
-
A pointer that the function can use for its own purposes. For example,
functions can use
initid->ptr
to communicate allocated memory
between functions. In xxx_init()
, allocate the memory and assign it
to this pointer:
initid->ptr = allocated_memory;
In xxx()
and xxx_deinit()
, refer to initid->ptr
to use
or deallocate the memory.
The args
parameter points to a UDF_ARGS
structure which has the
members listed below:
unsigned int arg_count
-
The number of arguments. Check this value in the initialization function
if you want your function to be called with a particular number of arguments.
For example:
if (args->arg_count != 2)
{
strcpy(message,"XXX() requires two arguments");
return 1;
}
enum Item_result *arg_type
-
The types for each argument. The possible type values are
STRING_RESULT
, INT_RESULT
and REAL_RESULT
.
To make sure that arguments are of a given type and return an
error if they are not, check the arg_type
array in the initialization
function. For example:
if (args->arg_type[0] != STRING_RESULT
&& args->arg_type[1] != INT_RESULT)
{
strcpy(message,"XXX() requires a string and an integer");
return 1;
}
As an alternative to requiring your function's arguments to be of particular
types, you can use the initialization function to set the arg_type
elements to the types you want. This causes MySQL to coerce
arguments to those types for each call to xxx()
. For example, to
specify coercion of the first two arguments to string and integer, do this in
xxx_init()
:
args->arg_type[0] = STRING_RESULT;
args->arg_type[1] = INT_RESULT;
char **args
-
args->args
communicates information to the initialization function
about the general nature of the arguments your function was called with. For a
constant argument i
, args->args[i]
points to the argument
value. (See below for instructions on how to access the value properly.)
For a non-constant argument, args->args[i]
is 0
.
A constant argument is an expression that uses only constants, such as
3
or 4*7-2
or SIN(3.14)
. A non-constant argument is an
expression that refers to values that may change from row to row, such as
column names or functions that are called with non-constant arguments.
For each invocation of the main function, args->args
contains the
actual arguments that are passed for the row currently being processed.
Functions can refer to an argument i
as follows:
unsigned long *lengths
-
For the initialization function, the
lengths
array indicates the
maximum string length for each argument. For each invocation of the main
function, lengths
contains the actual lengths of any string arguments
that are passed for the row currently being processed. For arguments of
types INT_RESULT
or REAL_RESULT
, lengths
still contains
the maximum length of the argument (as for the initialization function).
The initialization function should return 0
if no error occurred and
1
otherwise. If an error occurs, xxx_init()
should store a
null-terminated error message in the message
parameter. The message
will be returned to the client. The message buffer is
MYSQL_ERRMSG_SIZE
characters long, but you should try to keep the
message to less than 80 characters so that it fits the width of a standard
terminal screen.
The return value of the main function xxx()
is the function value, for
long long
and double
functions. For string functions, the
string is returned in the result
and length
arguments.
result
is a buffer at least 255 bytes long. Set these to the contents
and length of the return value. For example:
memcpy(result, "result string", 13);
*length = 13;
The string function return value normally also points to the result.
To indicate a return value of NULL
in the main function, set
is_null
to 1
:
*is_null = 1;
To indicate an error return in the main function, set the error
parameter to 1
:
*error = 1;
If xxx()
sets *error
to 1
for any row, the function
value is NULL
for the current row and for any subsequent rows
processed by the statement in which XXX()
was invoked. (xxx()
will not even be called for subsequent rows.) Note: In
MySQL versions prior to 3.22.10, you should set both *error
and *is_null
:
*error = 1;
*is_null = 1;
Files implementing UDFs must be compiled and installed on the host where the
server runs. This process is described below for the example UDF file
`udf_example.cc' that is included in the MySQL source
distribution. This file contains the following functions:
-
metaphon()
returns a metaphon string of the string argument.
This is something like a soundex string, but it's more tuned for English.
-
myfunc_double()
returns the sum of the ASCII values of the
characters in its arguments, divided by the sum of the length of its arguments.
-
myfunc_int()
returns the sum of the length of its arguments.
-
lookup()
returns the IP number for a hostname.
-
reverse_lookup()
returns the hostname for an IP number.
The function may be called with a string "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx"
or
four numbers.
A dynamically-loadable file should be compiled as a sharable object file,
using a command something like this:
shell> gcc -shared -o udf_example.so myfunc.cc
You can easily find out the correct compiler options for your system by
running this command in the `sql' directory of your MySQL
source tree:
shell> make udf_example.o
You should run a compile command similar to the one that make
displays,
except that you should remove the -c
option near the end of the line
and add -o udf_example.so
to the end of the line. (On some systems,
you may need to leave the -c
on the command.)
Once you compile a shared object containing UDFs, you must install it
and tell MySQL about it. Compiling a shared object from
`udf_example.cc' produces a file named something like
`udf_example.so' (the exact name may vary from platform to platform).
Copy this file to some directory searched by ld
, such as
`/usr/lib'. On many systems, you can set the LD_LIBRARY
or
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
environment variable to point at the directory where
you have your UDF function files. The dopen
manual page tells you
which variable you should use on your system. You should set this in
mysql.server
or safe_mysqld
and restart mysqld
.
After the library is installed, notify mysqld
about the new
functions with these commands:
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION metaphon RETURNS STRING SONAME "udf_example.so";
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION myfunc_double RETURNS REAL SONAME "udf_example.so";
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION myfunc_int RETURNS INTEGER SONAME "udf_example.so";
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION lookup RETURNS STRING SONAME "udf_example.so";
mysql> CREATE FUNCTION reverse_lookup RETURNS STRING SONAME "udf_example.so";
Functions can be deleted using DROP FUNCTION
:
mysql> DROP FUNCTION metaphon;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION myfunc_double;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION myfunc_int;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION lookup;
mysql> DROP FUNCTION reverse_lookup;
The CREATE FUNCTION
and DROP FUNCTION
statements update the
system table func
in the mysql
database. The function's name,
type and shared library name are saved in the table. You must have the
insert and delete privileges for the mysql
database
to create and drop functions.
You should not use CREATE FUNCTION
to add a function that has already
been created. If you need to reinstall a function, you should remove it with
DROP FUNCTION
and then reinstall it with CREATE FUNCTION
. You
would need to do this, for example, if you recompile a new version of your
function, so that mysqld
gets the new version. Otherwise the server
will continue to use the old version.
Active functions are reloaded each time the server starts, unless you start
mysqld
with the --skip-grant-tables
option. In this case, UDF
initialization is skipped and UDFs are unavailable. (An active function is
one that has been loaded with CREATE FUNCTION
and not removed with
DROP FUNCTION
.)