Syntax
------

CREATE [OR REPLACE]
  [DEFINER = {user | CURRENT_USER | role | CURRENT_ROLE }]
  [AGGREGATE] FUNCTION [IF NOT EXISTS] func_name ([func_parameter[,...]])
  RETURNS type
  [characteristic ...]
  RETURN func_body
func_parameter:
  [ IN | OUT | INOUT | IN OUT ]  param_name type
type:
  Any valid MariaDB data type
characteristic:
  LANGUAGE SQL
 | [NOT] DETERMINISTIC
 | { CONTAINS SQL | NO SQL | READS SQL DATA | MODIFIES SQL DATA }
 | SQL SECURITY { DEFINER | INVOKER }
 | COMMENT 'string'
func_body:
  Valid SQL procedure statement

Description
-----------

Use the CREATE FUNCTION statement to create a new stored function. You must
have the CREATE ROUTINE database privilege to use CREATE FUNCTION. A function
takes any number of arguments and returns a value from the function body. The
function body can be any valid SQL expression as you would use, for example,
in any select expression. If you have the appropriate privileges, you can call
the function exactly as you would any built-in function. See Security below
for details on privileges.

You can also use a variant of the CREATE FUNCTION statement to install a
user-defined function (UDF) defined by a plugin. See CREATE FUNCTION (UDF) for
details.

You can use a SELECT statement for the function body by enclosing it in
parentheses, exactly as you would to use a subselect for any other expression.
The SELECT statement must return a single value. If more than one column is
returned when the function is called, error 1241 results. If more than one row
is returned when the function is called, error 1242 results. Use a LIMIT
clause to ensure only one row is returned.

You can also replace the RETURN clause with a BEGIN...END compound statement.
The compound statement must contain a RETURN statement. When the function is
called, the RETURN statement immediately returns its result, and any
statements after RETURN are effectively ignored.

By default, a function is associated with the current database. To associate
the function explicitly with a given database, specify the fully-qualified
name as db_name.func_name when you create it. If the function name is the same
as the name of a built-in function, you must use the fully qualified name when
you call it.

The parameter list enclosed within parentheses must always be present. If
there are no parameters, an empty parameter list of () should be used.
Parameter names are not case sensitive.

Each parameter can be declared to use any valid data type, except that the
COLLATE attribute cannot be used.

For valid identifiers to use as function names, see Identifier Names.

IN | OUT | INOUT | IN OUT
-------------------------

MariaDB starting with 10.8.0
----------------------------
The function parameter qualifiers for IN, OUT, INOUT, and IN OUT were added in
a 10.8.0 preview release. Prior to 10.8.0 quantifiers were supported only in
procedures.

OUT, INOUT and its equivalent IN OUT, are only valid if called from SET and
not SELECT. These quantifiers are especially useful for creating functions
with more than one return value. This allows functions to be more complex and
nested.

DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION add_func3(IN a INT, IN b INT, OUT c INT) RETURNS INT
BEGIN
 SET c = 100;
 RETURN a + b;
END;
$$
DELIMITER ;

SET @a = 2;
SET @b = 3;
SET @c = 0;
SET @res= add_func3(@a, @b, @c);

SELECT add_func3(@a, @b, @c);
ERROR 4186 (HY000): OUT or INOUT argument 3 for function add_func3 is not
allowed here

DELIMITER $$
CREATE FUNCTION add_func4(IN a INT, IN b INT, d INT) RETURNS INT
BEGIN
 DECLARE c, res INT;
 SET res = add_func3(a, b, c) + d;
 if (c > 99) then
  return  3;
 else
  return res;
 end if;
END;
$$

DELIMITER ;

SELECT add_func4(1,2,3);
+------------------+
| add_func4(1,2,3) |
+------------------+
|                3 |
+------------------+

AGGREGATE
---------

It is possible to create stored aggregate functions as well. See Stored
Aggregate Functions for details.

RETURNS
-------

The RETURNS clause specifies the return type of the function. NULL values are
permitted with all return types.

What happens if the RETURN clause returns a value of a different type? It
depends on the SQL_MODE in effect at the moment of the function creation.

If the SQL_MODE is strict (STRICT_ALL_TABLES or STRICT_TRANS_TABLES flags are
specified), a 1366 error will be produced.

Otherwise, the value is coerced to the proper type. For example, if a function
specifies an ENUM or SET value in the RETURNS clause, but the RETURN clause
returns an integer, the value returned from the function is the string for the
corresponding ENUM member of set of SET members.

MariaDB stores the SQL_MODE system variable setting that is in effect at the
time a routine is created, and always executes the routine with this setting
in force, regardless of the server SQL mode in effect when the routine is
invoked.

LANGUAGE SQL
------------

LANGUAGE SQL is a standard SQL clause, and it can be used in MariaDB for
portability. However that clause has no meaning, because SQL is the only
supported language for stored functions.

A function is deterministic if it can produce only one result for a given list
of parameters. If the result may be affected by stored data, server variables,
random numbers or any value that is not explicitly passed, then the function
is not deterministic. Also, a function is non-deterministic if it uses
non-deterministic functions like NOW() or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(). The optimizer
may choose a faster execution plan if it known that the function is
deterministic. In such cases, you should declare the routine using the
DETERMINISTIC keyword. If you want to explicitly state that the function is
not deterministic (which is the default) you can use the NOT DETERMINISTIC
keywords.

If you declare a non-deterministic function as DETERMINISTIC, you may get
incorrect results. If you declare a deterministic function as NOT
DETERMINISTIC, in some cases the queries will be slower.

OR REPLACE
----------

If the optional OR REPLACE clause is used, it acts as a shortcut for:

DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS function_name;
CREATE FUNCTION function_name ...;

with the exception that any existing privileges for the function are not
dropped.

IF NOT EXISTS
-------------

If the IF NOT EXISTS clause is used, MariaDB will return a warning instead of
an error if the function already exists. Cannot be used together with OR
REPLACE.

[NOT] DETERMINISTIC
-------------------

The [NOT] DETERMINISTIC clause also affects binary logging, because the
STATEMENT format can not be used to store or replicate non-deterministic
statements.

CONTAINS SQL, NO SQL, READS SQL DATA, and MODIFIES SQL DATA are informative
clauses that tell the server what the function does. MariaDB does not check in
any way whether the specified clause is correct. If none of these clauses are
specified, CONTAINS SQL is used by default.

MODIFIES SQL DATA
-----------------

MODIFIES SQL DATA means that the function contains statements that may modify
data stored in databases. This happens if the function contains statements
like DELETE, UPDATE, INSERT, REPLACE or DDL.

READS SQL DATA
--------------

READS SQL DATA means that the function reads data stored in databases, but
does not modify any data. This happens if SELECT statements are used, but
there no write operations are executed.

CONTAINS SQL
------------

CONTAINS SQL means that the function contains at least one SQL statement, but
it does not read or write any data stored in a database. Examples include SET
or DO.

NO SQL
------

NO SQL means nothing, because MariaDB does not currently support any language
other than SQL.

Oracle Mode
-----------

A subset of Oracle's PL/SQL language is supported in addition to the
traditional SQL/PSM-based MariaDB syntax. See Oracle mode for details on
changes when running Oracle mode.

Security
--------

You must have the EXECUTE privilege on a function to call it. MariaDB
automatically grants the EXECUTE and ALTER ROUTINE privileges to the account
that called CREATE FUNCTION, even if the DEFINER clause was used.

Each function has an account associated as the definer. By default, the
definer is the account that created the function. Use the DEFINER clause to
specify a different account as the definer. You must have the SUPER privilege,
or, from MariaDB 10.5.2, the SET USER privilege, to use the DEFINER clause.
See Account Names for details on specifying accounts.

The SQL SECURITY clause specifies what privileges are used when a function is
called. If SQL SECURITY is INVOKER, the function body will be evaluated using
the privileges of the user calling the function. If SQL SECURITY is DEFINER,
the function body is always evaluated using the privileges of the definer
account. DEFINER is the default.

This allows you to create functions that grant limited access to certain data.
For example, say you have a table that stores some employee information, and
that you've granted SELECT privileges only on certain columns to the user
account roger.

CREATE TABLE employees (name TINYTEXT, dept TINYTEXT, salary INT);
GRANT SELECT (name, dept) ON employees TO roger;

To allow the user the get the maximum salary for a department, define a
function and grant the EXECUTE privilege:

CREATE FUNCTION max_salary (dept TINYTEXT) RETURNS INT RETURN
 (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees WHERE employees.dept = dept);
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION max_salary TO roger;

Since SQL SECURITY defaults to DEFINER, whenever the user roger calls this
function, the subselect will execute with your privileges. As long as you have
privileges to select the salary of each employee, the caller of the function
will be able to get the maximum salary for each department without being able
to see individual salaries.

Character sets and collations
-----------------------------

Function return types can be declared to use any valid character set and
collation. If used, the COLLATE attribute needs to be preceded by a CHARACTER
SET attribute.

If the character set and collation are not specifically set in the statement,
the database defaults at the time of creation will be used. If the database
defaults change at a later stage, the stored function character set/collation
will not be changed at the same time; the stored function needs to be dropped
and recreated to ensure the same character set/collation as the database is
used.

Examples
--------

The following example function takes a parameter, performs an operation using
an SQL function, and returns the result.

CREATE FUNCTION hello (s CHAR(20))
  RETURNS CHAR(50) DETERMINISTIC
  RETURN CONCAT('Hello, ',s,'!');

SELECT hello('world');
+----------------+
| hello('world') |
+----------------+
| Hello, world!  |
+----------------+

You can use a compound statement in a function to manipulate data with
statements like INSERT and UPDATE. The following example creates a counter
function that uses a temporary table to store the current value. Because the
compound statement contains statements terminated with semicolons, you have to
first change the statement delimiter with the DELIMITER statement to allow the
semicolon to be used in the function body. See Delimiters in the mariadb
client for more.

CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE counter (c INT);
INSERT INTO counter VALUES (0);
DELIMITER //
CREATE FUNCTION counter () RETURNS INT
 BEGIN
  UPDATE counter SET c = c + 1;
  RETURN (SELECT c FROM counter LIMIT 1);
 END //
DELIMITER ;

Character set and collation:

CREATE FUNCTION hello2 (s CHAR(20))
 RETURNS CHAR(50) CHARACTER SET 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_bin' DETERMINISTIC
 RETURN CONCAT('Hello, ',s,'!');

URL: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/create-function/