PostgreSQL, Second Edition

Defining the Data Type in PostgreSQL

At this point, PostgreSQL knows about your input and output functions. Now you can tell PostgreSQL about your data type:

CREATE TYPE FCUR ( INPUT=fcur_in, OUTPUT=fcur_out, INTERNALLENGTH=12 );

This command creates a new data type (how exciting) named FCUR. The input function is named fcur_in, and the output function is named fcur_out. The INTERNALLENGTH=12 clause tells PostgreSQL how much space is required to hold the internal value. I computed this value by hand—just add up the size of each member of the fcur structure and be sure that you account for any pad bytes. The safest way to compute the INTERNALLENGTH is to use your C compiler's sizeof() operator.

Let's create a table that uses this data type and ...