Select in a PostgreSQL function

I'm trying to do my first Function in PostgreSQL, but I can't to do it.
I was write this piece of code

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION getCars () 
   RETURNS TABLE (
      car_name VARCHAR,
      id_car INT
) 
AS $
BEGIN
   RETURN QUERY SELECT
      brand,car_id
   FROM
      cars;
end;
$ 

LANGUAGE plpgsql;

But... The error is when I'm trying to call taht function:

SELECT getcars();

Where is the issue?

the error message it's:

SQL Error [42804]: ERROR: structure of query does not match function result type
  Detail: Returned type text does not match expected type character varying in column 1.
  Where: PL/pgSQL function getcars() line 3 at RETURN QUERY

Thanks in advance!

You have two errors:

• apparently brand is defined as text, not varchar

• set returning functions have to be used like a table in the FROM clause.

So you need to change your function definition to:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION getcars() 
   RETURNS TABLE (car_name text, id_car INT) 
AS $
BEGIN
   RETURN QUERY 
   SELECT brand,car_id
   FROM cars;
end;
$ 
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

And then use it like this:

select *
from getcars();

Simple functions that just return a query are better defined as language sql:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION getcars() 
   RETURNS TABLE (car_name text, id_car INT) 
AS $
   SELECT brand,car_id
   FROM cars;
$ 
LANGUAGE sql
stable;

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#244553, answer score: 4