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CALL(7) — PostgreSQL 14.23 Documentation

📛 NAME

CALL — invoke a procedure

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
Invoke a procedure	CALL procedure_name(args);	Execute a procedure in PostgreSQL.
Call procedure with named arguments	CALL procedure_name(param => value);	Use named parameter syntax for clarity.
Call procedure with OUT parameters	CALL procedure_name(NULL, ...);	Supply NULL for OUT parameters as they are not evaluated.

📝 SYNOPSIS

CALL name ( [ argument ] [, ...] )

📖 DESCRIPTION

CALL executes a procedure.

If the procedure has any output parameters, then a result row will be returned, containing the values of those parameters.

⚙️ PARAMETERS

📛 name

The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the procedure.

📥 argument

An argument expression for the procedure call.

• Arguments can include parameter names, using the syntax name => value. This works the same as in ordinary function calls; see Section 4.3 for details.
• Arguments must be supplied for all procedure parameters that lack defaults, including OUT parameters. However, arguments matching OUT parameters are not evaluated, so it's customary to just write NULL for them. (Writing something else for an OUT parameter might cause compatibility problems with future PostgreSQL versions.)

📌 NOTES

• 🔑 The user must have EXECUTE privilege on the procedure in order to be allowed to invoke it.
• 🔄 To call a function (not a procedure), use SELECT instead.
• 💾 If CALL is executed in a transaction block, then the called procedure cannot execute transaction control statements. Transaction control statements are only allowed if CALL is executed in its own transaction.
• 🐘 PL/pgSQL handles output parameters in CALL commands differently; see Section 43.6.3.

💡 EXAMPLES

CALL do_db_maintenance();

🌐 COMPATIBILITY

CALL conforms to the SQL standard, except for the handling of output parameters. The standard says that users should write variables to receive the values of output parameters.

📚 SEE ALSO

CREATE PROCEDURE (7)

PostgreSQL 14.23 2026 CALL(7)

CALL(7) — PostgreSQL 14.23 Documentation 📛 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📝 SYNOPSIS 📖 DESCRIPTION ⚙️ PARAMETERS 📌 NOTES 💡 EXAMPLES 🌐 COMPATIBILITY 📚 SEE ALSO