Postgresql - return entire row as array

Question

Is there a way how you can cast the following result to array?

select pg_tables from pg_tables

This will return one column only, however the da

Answer 1

This function works with all corner cases including NULL values, empty strings or special characters in the values.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION f_rows_to_arr(_tbl text)
  RETURNS SETOF text[] AS
$BODY$
BEGIN

RETURN QUERY EXECUTE '
SELECT ARRAY[' || (
        SELECT string_agg(quote_ident(attname) || '::text', ',')
        FROM   pg_catalog.pg_attribute 
        WHERE  attrelid = _tbl::regclass  -- valid, visible table name 
        AND    attnum > 0                 -- exclude tableoid & friends
        AND    attisdropped = FALSE       -- exclude dropped columns
        ) || ' ]
FROM   ' || _tbl::regclass;

END;
$BODY$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Call:

SELECT * FROM f_rows_to_arr ('mytbl');

The cast to regclass avoids SQLi. Columns are not sorted in this version. More explanation for used techniques and links in this related answer.