String handling in postgres 8.4

Question

This started as a question about indexes, but then when I got my answer I realized I would have to try and convert the answer into 8.4 syntax (I can't believe that format does not exist).

I thought I was handling the variables correctly, but for some reason I can't get the typing to function properly:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION add_column(schema_name TEXT, table_name
TEXT,  column_name TEXT, data_type TEXT) RETURNS BOOLEAN AS $BODY$
DECLARE   _tmp text;
BEGIN

   EXECUTE 'SELECT COLUMN_NAME FROM information_schema.columns WHERE 
     table_schema='''+|| schema_name+'''
     AND table_name='''+||table_name+'''
     AND column_name='''+||column_name+''''   INTO _tmp;

   IF _tmp IS NOT NULL THEN
     RAISE NOTICE USING MESSAGE = 'Column '+||column_name+' already exists in '+||schema_name+'.'+||table_name;
     RETURN FALSE;   END IF;

   EXECUTE format('ALTER TABLE %I.%I ADD COLUMN %I %s;', schema_name,
 table_name, column_name, data_type);

     RAISE NOTICE USING MESSAGE = 'Column '+||column_name+' added to '+||schema_name+'.'+||table_name;

   RETURN TRUE;
END; $BODY$ LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

Here is the error message I get:

ERROR: operator does not exist: text + unknown

Does anyone know how I can get this to work in 8.4?