Noob question for plpgsql. How to format a string using printf-like semantics in a script? Basically I want the equivalent of

newstr := fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", "foo", "bar")

This has been surprisingly difficult to google.

there is a format function

Hmm I thought I tried this, but I guess it's working:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION str_cat(
  a text, 
  b text) 
RETURNS text 
AS $$
declare
    out text;
begin
    out := a || b;
    out := a || '-' || b;
    out := format('%s | %s', a, b);
    return out;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

obviously only the most recent

out

would do anything. I'd look up

out

to check that it is a reserved word if your having any odd issues. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-keywords-appendix.html