Pg(3pm)

NAME

Pg - Perl5 extension for PostgreSQL

SYNOPSIS

use Pg;
$conn = Pg::connectdb("dbname=template1");
$res  = $conn->exec("SELECT * from pg_user");
while (@row = $res->fetchrow) {
    print join(" ", @row);
}

DESCRIPTION

The Pg module permits you to access all functions of the Libpq
interface of PostgreSQL. Libpq is the programmer's interface to
PostgreSQL. For examples of how to use this module, look at the file
test.pl.

GUIDELINES

This perl interface uses blessed references as objects. After creating a new connection or result object, the relevant Libpq functions serve
as virtual methods. You do not have to care about freeing the
connection- and result-structures. Perl calls the destructor whenever
the last reference to an object goes away.

The method fetchrow can be used to fetch the next row from the server: while (@row = $result->fetchrow). Columns which have NULL as value
will be set to "undef".

Pg.pm contains one convenience function: doQuery. It fills a twodimensional array with the result of your query. Usage:

Pg::doQuery($conn, "select attr1, attr2 from tbl", \@ary);

for $i ( 0 .. $#ary ) {

for $j ( 0 .. $#{$ary[$i]} ) {

print "$ary[$i][$j]\t";

}
print "\n";

}

Notice the inner loop !

FUNCTIONS

The functions have been divided into three sections: Connection,
Result, Large Objects. For details please read libpq.

1. Connection

With these functions you can establish and close a connection to a
database. In Libpq a connection is represented by a structure called
PGconn.

When opening a connection a given database name is always converted to lower-case, unless it is surrounded by double quotes. All unspecified
parameters are replaced by environment variables or by hard coded
defaults:

parameter environment variable hard coded default
------------------------------------------------------host PGHOST localhost
port PGPORT 5432
options PGOPTIONS ""
tty PGTTY ""
dbname PGDATABASE current userid
user PGUSER current userid
password PGPASSWORD ""
passwordfile PGPASSWORDFILE ""

Using appropriate methods you can access almost all fields of the
returned PGconn structure.

$conn = Pg::setdbLogin($pghost, $pgport, $pgoptions, $pgtty, $dbname, $login, $pwd)

Opens a new connection to the backend. The connection identifier $conn ( a pointer to the PGconn structure ) must be used in subsequent
commands for unique identification. Before using $conn you should call $conn->status to ensure, that the connection was properly made.
Closing a connection is done by deleting the connection handle, eg
'undef $conn;'.

$conn = Pg::setdb($pghost, $pgport, $pgoptions, $pgtty, $dbname)

The method setdb should be used when username/password authentication
is not needed.

$conn = Pg::connectdb("option1=value option2=value ...")

Opens a new connection to the backend using connection information in a string. Possible options are: host, port, options, tty, dbname, user,
password. The connection identifier $conn (a pointer to the PGconn
structure) must be used in subsequent commands for unique
identification. Before using $conn you should call $conn->status to
ensure, that the connection was properly made.

$Option_ref = Pg::conndefaults()

while(($key, $val) = each %$Option_ref) {

print "$key, $val\n";

Returns a reference to a hash containing as keys all possible options
for connectdb(). The values are the current defaults. This function differs from his C-counterpart, which returns the complete
conninfoOption structure.

$conn->reset

Resets the communication port with the backend and tries to establish a new connection.

$ret = $conn->requestCancel

Abandon processing of the current query. Regardless of the return
value of requestCancel, the application must continue with the normal
result-reading sequence using getResult. If the current query is part
of a transaction, cancellation will abort the whole transaction.

$dbname = $conn->db

Returns the database name of the connection.

$pguser = $conn->user

Returns the Postgres user name of the connection.

$pguser = $conn->pass

Returns the Postgres password of the connection.

$pghost = $conn->host

Returns the host name of the connection.

$pgport = $conn->port

Returns the port of the connection.

$pgtty = $conn->tty

Returns the tty of the connection.

$pgoptions = $conn->options

Returns the options used in the connection.

$status = $conn->status

Returns the status of the connection. For comparing the status you may use the following constants:

- PGRES_CONNECTION_OK
- PGRES_CONNECTION_BAD

$errorMessage = $conn->errorMessage

Returns the last error message associated with this connection.

$fd = $conn->socket

Obtain the file descriptor number for the backend connection socket. A result of -1 indicates that no backend connection is currently open.

$pid = $conn->backendPID

Returns the process-id of the corresponding backend proceess.

$conn->trace(debug_port)

Messages passed between frontend and backend are echoed to the
debug_port file stream.

$conn->untrace

Disables tracing.

$result = $conn->exec($query)

Submits a query to the backend. The return value is a pointer to the
PGresult structure, which contains the complete query-result returned
by the backend. In case of failure, the pointer points to an empty
structure. Before using $result you should call resultStatus to ensure, that the query was properly executed.

($table, $pid) = $conn->notifies

Checks for asynchronous notifications. This functions differs from the C-counterpart which returns a pointer to a new allocated structure,
whereas the perl implementation returns a list. $table is the table
which has been listened to and $pid is the process id of the backend.

$ret = $conn->sendQuery($string, $query)

Submit a query to Postgres without waiting for the result(s). After
successfully calling PQsendQuery, call PQgetResult one or more times to obtain the query results. PQsendQuery may not be called again until
getResult has returned NULL, indicating that the query is done.

$result = $conn->getResult

Wait for the next result from a prior PQsendQuery, and return it. NULL is returned when the query is complete and there will be no more
results. getResult will block only if a query is active and the
necessary response data has not yet been read by PQconsumeInput.

$ret = $conn->isBusy

Returns TRUE if a query is busy, that is, PQgetResult would block
waiting for input. A FALSE return indicates that PQgetResult can be
called with assurance of not blocking.

$result = $conn->consumeInput

If input is available from the backend, consume it. After calling
consumeInput, the application may check isBusy and/or notifies to see
if their state has changed.

$ret = $conn->getline($string, $length)

Reads a string up to $length - 1 characters from the backend. getline returns EOF at EOF, 0 if the entire line has been read, and 1 if the
buffer is full. If a line consists of the two characters "\." the
backend has finished sending the results of the copy command.

$ret = $conn->putline($string)

Sends a string to the backend. The application must explicitly send the two characters "\." to indicate to the backend that it has finished
sending its data.

$ret = $conn->getlineAsync($buffer, $bufsize)

Non-blocking version of getline. It reads up to $bufsize characters
from the backend. getlineAsync returns -1 if the end-of-copy-marker has been recognized, 0 if no data is avilable, and >0 the number of bytes
returned.

$ret = $conn->putnbytes($buffer, $nbytes)

Sends n bytes to the backend. Returns 0 if OK, EOF if not.

$ret = $conn->endcopy

This function waits until the backend has finished the copy. It
should either be issued when the last string has been sent to the
backend using putline or when the last string has been received from the backend using getline. endcopy returns 0 on success, 1 on failure.

$result = $conn->makeEmptyPGresult($status);

Returns a newly allocated, initialized result with given status.

2. Result

With these functions you can send commands to a database and
investigate the results. In Libpq the result of a command is
represented by a structure called PGresult. Using the appropriate
methods you can access almost all fields of this structure.

$result_status = $result->resultStatus

Returns the status of the result. For comparing the status you may use one of the following constants depending upon the command executed:

- PGRES_EMPTY_QUERY
- PGRES_COMMAND_OK
- PGRES_TUPLES_OK
- PGRES_COPY_OUT
- PGRES_COPY_IN
- PGRES_BAD_RESPONSE
- PGRES_NONFATAL_ERROR
- PGRES_FATAL_ERROR

Use the functions below to access the contents of the PGresult
structure.

$ntuples = $result->ntuples

Returns the number of tuples in the query result.

$nfields = $result->nfields

Returns the number of fields in the query result.

$ret = $result->binaryTuples

Returns 1 if the tuples in the query result are bianry.

$fname = $result->fname($field_num)

Returns the field name associated with the given field number.

$fnumber = $result->fnumber($field_name)

Returns the field number associated with the given field name.

$ftype = $result->ftype($field_num)

Returns the oid of the type of the given field number.

$fsize = $result->fsize($field_num)

Returns the size in bytes of the type of the given field number. It
returns -1 if the field has a variable length.

$fmod = $result->fmod($field_num)

Returns the type-specific modification data of the field associated
with the given field index. Field indices start at 0.

$cmdStatus = $result->cmdStatus

Returns the command status of the last query command. In case of
DELETE it returns also the number of deleted tuples. In case of INSERT it returns also the OID of the inserted tuple followed by 1 (the number of affected tuples).

$oid = $result->oidStatus

In case the last query was an INSERT command it returns the oid of the inserted tuple.

$oid = $result->cmdTuples

In case the last query was an INSERT or DELETE command it returns the
number of affected tuples.

$value = $result->getvalue($tup_num, $field_num)

Returns the value of the given tuple and field. This is a nullterminated ASCII string. Binary cursors will not work.

$length = $result->getlength($tup_num, $field_num)

Returns the length of the value for a given tuple and field.

$null_status = $result->getisnull($tup_num, $field_num)

Returns the NULL status for a given tuple and field.

$res->fetchrow

Fetches the next row from the server and returns NULL if all rows have been processed. Columns which have NULL as value will be set to
"undef".

$result->print($fout, $header, $align, $standard, $html3, $expanded, $pager, $fieldSep, $tableOpt, $caption, ...)

Prints out all the tuples in an intelligent manner. This function
differs from the C-counterpart. The struct PQprintOpt has been
implemented with a list. This list is of variable length, in order to
care for the character array fieldName in PQprintOpt. The arguments
$header, $align, $standard, $html3, $expanded, $pager are boolean
flags. The arguments $fieldSep, $tableOpt, $caption are strings. You
may append additional strings, which will be taken as replacement for
the field names.

$result->displayTuples($fp, $fillAlign, $fieldSep, $printHeader, qiet)

Kept for backward compatibility. Use print.

$result->printTuples($fout, $printAttName, $terseOutput, $width)

Kept for backward compatibility. Use print.

3. Large Objects

These functions provide file-oriented access to user data. The large
object interface is modeled after the Unix file system interface with
analogies of open, close, read, write, lseek, tell.

Starting with postgresql-6.5 it is required to use large objects only
inside a transaction ! See eg/lo_demo.pl for an example, how to handle large objects.

$lobj_fd = $conn->lo_open($lobjId, $mode)

Opens an existing large object and returns an object id. For the mode bits see lo_create. Returns -1 upon failure.

$ret = $conn->lo_close($lobj_fd)

Closes an existing large object. Returns 0 upon success and -1 upon
failure.

$nbytes = $conn->lo_read($lobj_fd, $buf, $len)

Reads $len bytes into $buf from large object $lobj_fd. Returns the
number of bytes read and -1 upon failure.

$nbytes = $conn->lo_write($lobj_fd, $buf, $len)

Writes $len bytes of $buf into the large object $lobj_fd. Returns the number of bytes written and -1 upon failure.

$ret = $conn->lo_lseek($lobj_fd, $offset, $whence)

Change the current read or write location on the large object $obj_id. Currently $whence can only be 0 (L_SET).

$lobjId = $conn->lo_creat($mode)

Creates a new large object. $mode is a bit-mask describing different
attributes of the new object. Use the following constants:

- PGRES_INV_SMGRMASK
- PGRES_INV_WRITE
- PGRES_INV_READ

Upon failure it returns PGRES_InvalidOid.

$location = $conn->lo_tell($lobj_fd)

Returns the current read or write location on the large object
$lobj_fd.

$ret = $conn->lo_unlink($lobjId)

Deletes a large object. Returns -1 upon failure.

$lobjId = $conn->lo_import($filename)

Imports a Unix file as large object and returns the object id of the
new object.

$ret = $conn->lo_export($lobjId, $filename)

Exports a large object into a Unix file. Returns -1 upon failure, 1
otherwise.

AUTHOR

Edmund Mergl <E.Mergl@bawue.de>

SEE ALSO

PostgreSQL Programmer's Guide, Large Objects and libpq

perl v5.10.0 2008-05-07 Pg(3pm)