Well, I've seem to have found an answer to my own question. Isn't funny how one can explain a coding problem to a non-technical person (eg: my loving wife), and somehow they give you an answer simply by listening?
Not totally tested yet (I need to 'greek' the database first), but cursory inspection leads me to believe this is what I wanted in the first place.
CREATE FUNCTION format_links(text,text)
RETURNS text AS '
return qq[<a href="http://www.domain.com/$_[0]">$_[1]</a>];
' LANGUAGE 'plperl';
CREATE FUNCTION links_agg(text,text)
RETURNS text AS '
if ($_[0]) {
return $_[0] . qq[<br>] . $_[1];
}
else {
return $_[1];
}
' LANGUAGE 'plperl';
CREATE AGGREGATE get_links (basetype=text, sfunc=links_agg, stype=text
+, initcond='');
Which means the following:
SELECT get_links(format_links(url,name)) FROM links;
Will yield my needed results. I'll probably abstract with a VIEW:
CREATE VIEW link_list AS
SELECT get_links(format_links(url,name))
FROM links
So that I can just say:
SELECT * FROM link_list;
Hopefully my original question and now this reply will be useful to some other monk (or aspiring monk) later on -- even if it is "Semi-OT".
--
notsoevil
--
Jeremiah 49:32 - And their camels shall be a booty. . .