Yeah, there is no weirdness here. Parentheses make a regular select-list into a ROW-constructor (see the FM: "The key word ROW is optional when there is more than one expression in the list." ):

So it is:

testdb=# select x,y,z from (values ('abc', 'def', 'ghi')) as f(x,y,z);

  x  |  y  |  z
-----+-----+-----
 abc | def | ghi
(1 row)
[download]

but with parentheses:

testdb=# select (x,y,z) from (values ('abc', 'def', 'ghi')) as f(x,y,z
+);

      row
---------------
 (abc,def,ghi)
(1 row)


-- also:
-- "The key word ROW is optional when there is more than one expressio
+n in the list."
--
testdb=# select (x,y,z) = row(x,y,z)
from (values ('abc', 'def', 'ghi')) as f(x,y,z);

 ?column?
----------
 t
(1 row)
[download]

(latest postgresql 9.1.3.)

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.