BUG #13909: String concat error with CITEXT after 9.5.0 upgrade.

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference: 13909
Logged by: Hein
Email address: hein(at)bitechsystems(dot)co(dot)za
PostgreSQL version: 9.5.0
Operating system: Windows 10 / Linux
Description:

After upgrading to 9.5 with a new database, concatenation of a citext and a
function that returns citext does not work. It gives a syntax error.

Code to duplicate, requires citext extension:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION isnull(
p_value citext
,p_replacevalue citext = ''
)
RETURNS citext
AS $$
select case when p_value is null then p_replacevalue else p_value end
$$ LANGUAGE sql IMMUTABLE COST 1;

DO
$$
DECLARE
m_text citext;
BEGIN
m_text = 'test' || isnull(m_text,''); --code breaks here!
--raise notice '%', isnull(m_text);
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql ;

hein(at)bitechsystems(dot)co(dot)za writes:
> m_text = 'test' || isnull(m_text,''); --code breaks here!

ISNULL is a keyword, which I can't really recommend using as a function
name. This example used to accidentally fail to fail before 9.5 because
ISNULL was considered to bind tighter than ||. But now it binds less
tightly, meaning that the first part of the expression is parsed as
(('test' ||) IS NULL), which is not what you meant.

You could fix this with more parentheses:

m_text = 'test' || (isnull(m_text,''));

or by double-quoting the function name so it doesn't look like a keyword:

m_text = 'test' || "isnull"(m_text,'');

but you might be better advised to rename the function.

regards, tom lane