PostgreSQL functions
PostgreSQL
&reftitle.intro;
PostgreSQL database is Open Source product and available without
cost. Postgres, developed originally in the UC Berkeley Computer
Science Department, pioneered many of the object-relational concepts
now becoming available in some commercial databases. It provides
SQL92/SQL99 language support, transactions, referential integrity,
stored procedures and type extensibility. PostgreSQL is an open source
descendant of this original Berkeley code.
&reftitle.required;
To use PostgreSQL support, you need PostgreSQL 6.5 or
later, PostgreSQL 7.0 or later to enable all PostgreSQL module
features. PostgreSQL supports many character encoding including
multibyte character encoding. The current version and more
information about PostgreSQL is available at
&url.pgsql; and
&url.pgsql.techdocs;.
&reference.pgsql.configure;
&reference.pgsql.ini;
How to use and hints
Using the PostgreSQL module with PHP 4.0.6 is not recommended due to
a bug in the notice message handling code. Use 4.1.0 or later.
PostgreSQL function names will be changed in 4.2.0 release to
confirm to current coding standards. Most of new names will have
additional underscores, e.g. pg_lo_open(). Some functions are
renamed to different name for consistency. e.g. pg_exec() to
pg_query(). Older names can be used in 4.2.0 and a few releases
from 4.2.0, but they may be deleted in the future.
Function names changed
Old name
New name
pg_exec
pg_query
pg_getlastoid
pg_last_oid
pg_cmdtuples
pg_affected_rows
pg_numrows
pg_num_rows
pg_numfields
pg_num_fields
pg_fieldname
pg_field_name
pg_fieldsize
pg_field_size
pg_fieldnum
pg_field_num
pg_fieldprtlen
pg_field_prtlen
pg_fieldisnull
pg_field_is_null
pg_freeresult
pg_free_result
pg_result
pg_fetch_result
pg_loreadall
pg_lo_read_all
pg_locreate
pg_lo_create
pg_lounlink
pg_lo_unlink
pg_loopen
pg_lo_open
pg_loclose
pg_lo_close
pg_loread
pg_lo_read
pg_lowrite
pg_lo_write
pg_loimport
pg_lo_import
pg_loexport
pg_lo_export
The old pg_connect/pg_pconnect
syntax will be deprecated to support asynchronous connections in the
future. Please use a connection string for pg_connect
and pg_pconnect.
Not all functions are supported by all builds. It depends on your
libpq (The PostgreSQL C Client interface) version and how libpq is
compiled. If there is missing function, libpq does not support
the feature required for the function.
It is also important that you do not use an older libpq than the PostgreSQL
Server to which you will be connecting. If you use libpq older than PostgreSQL
Server expects, you may have problems.
Since version 6.3 (03/02/1998) PostgreSQL uses unix domain sockets
by default. TCP port will NOT be opened by default. A table is
shown below describing these new connection possibilities. This
socket will be found in /tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432.
This option can be enabled with the '-i' flag to
postmaster and it's meaning is: "listen on
TCP/IP sockets as well as Unix domain sockets".
Postmaster and PHP
Postmaster
PHP
Status
postmaster &
pg_connect("dbname=MyDbName");
OK
postmaster -i &
pg_connect("dbname=MyDbName");
OK
postmaster &
pg_connect("host=localhost dbname=MyDbName");
Unable to connect to PostgreSQL server: connectDB() failed:
Is the postmaster running and accepting TCP/IP (with -i)
connection at 'localhost' on port '5432'? in
/path/to/file.php on line 20.
postmaster -i &
pg_connect("host=localhost dbname=MyDbName");
OK
A connection to PostgreSQL server can be established with the
following value pairs set in the command string: $conn =
pg_connect("host=myHost port=myPort tty=myTTY options=myOptions
dbname=myDB user=myUser password=myPassword ");
The previous syntax of:
$conn = pg_connect ("host", "port", "options", "tty", "dbname")
has been deprecated.
Environmental variables affect PostgreSQL server/client
behavior. For example, PostgreSQL module will lookup PGHOST
environment variable when the hostname is omitted in the connection
string. Supported environment variables are different from version
to version. Refer to PostgreSQL Programmer's Manual (libpq -
Environment Variables) for details.
Make sure you set environment variables for appropriate user. Use
$_ENV or getenv to check
which environment variables are available to the current process.
Setting default parameters
&reference.pgsql.constants;
&reftitle.examples;
Starting with PostgreSQL 7.1.0, you can store up to 1GB into a
field of type text. In older versions, this was limited to the block
size (default was 8KB, maximum was 32KB, defined at compile time)
To use the large object (lo) interface, it is required to enclose
large object functions within a transaction block. A transaction
block starts with a SQL statement BEGIN and if
the transaction was valid ends with COMMIT or
END. If the transaction fails the transaction
should be closed with ROLLBACK or
ABORT.
Using Large Objects
]]>
You should not close the connection to the PostgreSQL server
before closing the large object.
&reference.pgsql.functions;