SPI_FNUMBER(3)

okay bestie, welcome to SPI_FNUMBER(3) from the PostgreSQL 15.19 docs — this is the little function that tells you which column number goes with a column name 💅✨

🎀 NAME 🎀

SPI_fnumber — determine the column number for the specified column name. yes, that's literally her whole job 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int SPI_fnumber(TupleDesc rowdesc, const char * colname)

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so SPI_fnumber returns the column number for the column with the specified name. very "where is she?" but for columns 👀

if colname refers to a system column (e.g., ctid), then the appropriate negative column number will be returned. so do not freak out if the number is negative — that's just system-column behavior, bestie 🦋

caller tea ☕: be careful and test the return value for exact equality to SPI_ERROR_NOATTRIBUTE when you're checking for an error. testing the result for <= 0 is not correct unless system columns should be rejected. periodt 💀

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• TupleDesc rowdesc — input row description. this is the row description you're handing over 💌
• const char * colname — column name. the name you're looking for 🔎

👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

• Column number (count starts at 1 for user-defined columns), or SPI_ERROR_NOATTRIBUTE if the named column was not found. iconic and straightforward 💫

mwah 💋 — this page is from PostgreSQL 15.19, dated 2026, and it's literally called SPI_FNUMBER(3) 🎀