sql - How to get the data of the newly accessed record by a query on PostgreSQL using it's internal variables and functions?

Question

Let's say I have the following 'items' table in my PostgreSQL database:

id	item	value
1	a	10
2	b	20
3	c	30

Answer 1

You can simply extract the whole record that contains max(value) w/o bothering about Postgres internals like this:

select id, item, "value"
  from items 
 order by "value" desc
 limit 1;

I do not think that using undocumented "behind the scenes" ways is a good idea at all. The planner is smart enough to do exactly what you need w/o extra work.