SPI_FNUMBER(3)

💖 NAME 💖

SPI_fnumber — bestie, this is the one that figures out the column number for a column when all you've got is its name 🎀

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int SPI_fnumber(TupleDesc rowdesc, const char * colname)

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the vibe: SPI_fnumber hands you back the column number for the column with the name you specified. that's it, that's the whole job 💅

but wait, plot twist 👀 — if colname is pointing at a system column (think like ctid and friends), then you're getting the appropriate negative column number back. not a bug, that's just how it is, no cap.

⚠️ listen up bestie, this part matters ⚠️ the caller has to be careful and test the return value for exact equality to SPI_ERROR_NOATTRIBUTE to detect an error. do NOT just check whether the result is less than or equal to 0 — that is not correct, unless rejecting system columns is literally what you want. fr fr, this is the trap that eats people 🪤

---

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• TupleDesc rowdesc — the input row description, aka the row you're snooping through 🔍
• const char * colname — the column name you're hunting for 👑

---

👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

you get the column number back (and btw the count starts at 1 for user-defined columns, not 0, so don't come at me with zero-indexed energy 💀), or you get SPI_ERROR_NOATTRIBUTE if the named column was nowhere to be found 😭

---

that's the whole page, you ate that 🫶 go forth and check your return values properly, i'm literally begging you 💜

sending love from the PostgreSQL 18.6 docs, dated 2026 ✨ mwah 💖