What's the easiest way to return a recordset from a PostgreSQL stored procedure?

I simply have a table that contains a list of countries and their ISO country codes. I'm wrapping the query in a stored procedure (aka function) such as:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_countries(
                    ) RETURNS setof record AS $$
        SELECT country_code, country_name FROM country_codes
$$ LANGUAGE sql;

The error I am getting is:

ERROR:  a column definition list is required for functions returning "record"

I know that I can define a TYPE and then loop through the recordset like a cursor, but IIRC there's a better way to do this under newer versions of PostgreSQL (I'm using 8.4.3) but I'm pulling my hair out trying to remember.

Edit:

This works:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_countries(
                    ) RETURNS 开发者_运维百科setof country_codes AS $$
        SELECT country_code, country_name FROM country_codes
$$ LANGUAGE sql;

Note the "RETURNS setof [table name]". But it doesn't seem to be the most flexible. It falls apart if I attempt to return a join of several tables.

There is also the option of using RETURNS TABLE(...) (as described in the PostgreSQL Manual), which I personally prefer:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_countries()
RETURNS TABLE(
    country_code text,
    country_name text
)
AS $$
    SELECT country_code, country_name FROM country_codes
$$ LANGUAGE sql;

This is effectively the same as using SETOF tablename, but declares the table structure inline instead of referencing an existing object, so joins and such will still work.

You should be able to use output parameters, like this:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_countries(country_code OUT text, country_name OUT text)
RETURNS setof record
AS $$ SELECT country_code, country_name FROM country_codes $$
LANGUAGE sql;