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CREATE PROCEDURE(7)                PostgreSQL 14.23 Documentation                CREATE PROCEDURE(7)



NAME
       CREATE_PROCEDURE - define a new procedure

SYNOPSIS
       CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] PROCEDURE
           name ( [ [ argmode ] [ argname ] argtype [ { DEFAULT | = } default_expr ] [, ...] ] )
         { LANGUAGE lang_name
           | TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ]
           | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY INVOKER | [ EXTERNAL ] SECURITY DEFINER
           | SET configuration_parameter { TO value | = value | FROM CURRENT }
           | AS 'definition'
           | AS 'obj_file', 'link_symbol'
           | sql_body
         } ...

DESCRIPTION
       CREATE PROCEDURE defines a new procedure.  CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE will either create a
       new procedure, or replace an existing definition. To be able to define a procedure, the user
       must have the USAGE privilege on the language.

       If a schema name is included, then the procedure is created in the specified schema.
       Otherwise it is created in the current schema. The name of the new procedure must not match
       any existing procedure or function with the same input argument types in the same schema.
       However, procedures and functions of different argument types can share a name (this is
       called overloading).

       To replace the current definition of an existing procedure, use CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE.
       It is not possible to change the name or argument types of a procedure this way (if you
       tried, you would actually be creating a new, distinct procedure).

       When CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE is used to replace an existing procedure, the ownership and
       permissions of the procedure do not change. All other procedure properties are assigned the
       values specified or implied in the command. You must own the procedure to replace it (this
       includes being a member of the owning role).

       The user that creates the procedure becomes the owner of the procedure.

       To be able to create a procedure, you must have USAGE privilege on the argument types.

       Refer to Section 38.4 for further information on writing procedures.

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

       argmode
           The mode of an argument: IN, OUT, INOUT, or VARIADIC. If omitted, the default is IN.

       argname
           The name of an argument.

       argtype
           The data type(s) of the procedure's arguments (optionally schema-qualified), if any. The
           argument types can be base, composite, or domain types, or can reference the type of a
           table column.

           Depending on the implementation language it might also be allowed to specify
           “pseudo-types” such as cstring. Pseudo-types indicate that the actual argument type is
           either incompletely specified, or outside the set of ordinary SQL data types.

           The type of a column is referenced by writing table_name.column_name%TYPE. Using this
           feature can sometimes help make a procedure independent of changes to the definition of a
           table.

       default_expr
           An expression to be used as default value if the parameter is not specified. The
           expression has to be coercible to the argument type of the parameter. All input
           parameters following a parameter with a default value must have default values as well.

       lang_name
           The name of the language that the procedure is implemented in. It can be sql, c,
           internal, or the name of a user-defined procedural language, e.g., plpgsql. The default
           is sql if sql_body is specified. Enclosing the name in single quotes is deprecated and
           requires matching case.

       TRANSFORM { FOR TYPE type_name } [, ... ] }
           Lists which transforms a call to the procedure should apply. Transforms convert between
           SQL types and language-specific data types; see CREATE TRANSFORM (CREATE_TRANSFORM(7)).
           Procedural language implementations usually have hardcoded knowledge of the built-in
           types, so those don't need to be listed here. If a procedural language implementation
           does not know how to handle a type and no transform is supplied, it will fall back to a
           default behavior for converting data types, but this depends on the implementation.

       [EXTERNAL] SECURITY INVOKER
       [EXTERNAL] SECURITY DEFINER
           SECURITY INVOKER indicates that the procedure is to be executed with the privileges of
           the user that calls it. That is the default.  SECURITY DEFINER specifies that the
           procedure is to be executed with the privileges of the user that owns it.

           The key word EXTERNAL is allowed for SQL conformance, but it is optional since, unlike in
           SQL, this feature applies to all procedures not only external ones.

           A SECURITY DEFINER procedure cannot execute transaction control statements (for example,
           COMMIT and ROLLBACK, depending on the language).

       configuration_parameter
       value
           The SET clause causes the specified configuration parameter to be set to the specified
           value when the procedure is entered, and then restored to its prior value when the
           procedure exits.  SET FROM CURRENT saves the value of the parameter that is current when
           CREATE PROCEDURE is executed as the value to be applied when the procedure is entered.

           If a SET clause is attached to a procedure, then the effects of a SET LOCAL command
           executed inside the procedure for the same variable are restricted to the procedure: the
           configuration parameter's prior value is still restored at procedure exit. However, an
           ordinary SET command (without LOCAL) overrides the SET clause, much as it would do for a
           previous SET LOCAL command: the effects of such a command will persist after procedure
           exit, unless the current transaction is rolled back.

           If a SET clause is attached to a procedure, then that procedure cannot execute
           transaction control statements (for example, COMMIT and ROLLBACK, depending on the
           language).

           See SET(7) and Chapter 20 for more information about allowed parameter names and values.

       definition
           A string constant defining the procedure; the meaning depends on the language. It can be
           an internal procedure name, the path to an object file, an SQL command, or text in a
           procedural language.

           It is often helpful to use dollar quoting (see Section 4.1.2.4) to write the procedure
           definition string, rather than the normal single quote syntax. Without dollar quoting,
           any single quotes or backslashes in the procedure definition must be escaped by doubling
           them.

       obj_file, link_symbol
           This form of the AS clause is used for dynamically loadable C language procedures when
           the procedure name in the C language source code is not the same as the name of the SQL
           procedure. The string obj_file is the name of the shared library file containing the
           compiled C procedure, and is interpreted as for the LOAD command. The string link_symbol
           is the procedure's link symbol, that is, the name of the procedure in the C language
           source code. If the link symbol is omitted, it is assumed to be the same as the name of
           the SQL procedure being defined.

           When repeated CREATE PROCEDURE calls refer to the same object file, the file is only
           loaded once per session. To unload and reload the file (perhaps during development),
           start a new session.

       sql_body
           The body of a LANGUAGE SQL procedure. This should be a block

               BEGIN ATOMIC
                 statement;
                 statement;
                 ...
                 statement;
               END

           This is similar to writing the text of the procedure body as a string constant (see
           definition above), but there are some differences: This form only works for LANGUAGE SQL,
           the string constant form works for all languages. This form is parsed at procedure
           definition time, the string constant form is parsed at execution time; therefore this
           form cannot support polymorphic argument types and other constructs that are not
           resolvable at procedure definition time. This form tracks dependencies between the
           procedure and objects used in the procedure body, so DROP ... CASCADE will work
           correctly, whereas the form using string literals may leave dangling procedures. Finally,
           this form is more compatible with the SQL standard and other SQL implementations.

NOTES
       See CREATE FUNCTION (CREATE_FUNCTION(7)) for more details on function creation that also
       apply to procedures.

       Use CALL(7) to execute a procedure.

EXAMPLES
           CREATE PROCEDURE insert_data(a integer, b integer)
           LANGUAGE SQL
           AS $$
           INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (a);
           INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (b);
           $$;

       or

           CREATE PROCEDURE insert_data(a integer, b integer)
           LANGUAGE SQL
           BEGIN ATOMIC
             INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (a);
             INSERT INTO tbl VALUES (b);
           END;

       and call like this:

           CALL insert_data(1, 2);

COMPATIBILITY
       A CREATE PROCEDURE command is defined in the SQL standard. The PostgreSQL implementation can
       be used in a compatible way but has many extensions. For details see also CREATE FUNCTION
       (CREATE_FUNCTION(7)).

SEE ALSO
       ALTER PROCEDURE (ALTER_PROCEDURE(7)), DROP PROCEDURE (DROP_PROCEDURE(7)), CALL(7), CREATE
       FUNCTION (CREATE_FUNCTION(7))



PostgreSQL 14.23                                2026                             CREATE PROCEDURE(7)