Debug SQL in pgAdmin when SQL contains variables

Question

In SQL Server I could copy sql code out of an application and paste it into SSMS, declare & assign vars that exist in the sql and run. yay great debugging scenario.

Answer 1

SQL procs are notoriously hard to debug. My lame but practical solution has been to write log messages to a log table, like this (please excuse syntax issues):

create table log_message (
  log_timestamp timestamp not null default current_timestamp,
  message varchar(1000)
);

then add lines to your stored proc like:

insert into log_message (message) values ("The value of x is " || @x);

Then after a run:

select * from log_message order by 1;

It's not pretty, but works in every DB.