Once a connection to a database server has been successfully established, the functions described here are used to perform SQL queries and commands.
PQexec
Submits a command to the server and waits for the result.
PGresult *PQexec(PGconn *conn, const char *command);
Returns a PGresult
pointer or possibly a null
pointer. A non-null pointer will generally be returned except in
out-of-memory conditions or serious errors such as inability to send
the command to the server. The PQresultStatus
function
should be called to check the return value for any errors (including
the value of a null pointer, in which case it will return
PGRES_FATAL_ERROR
). Use
PQerrorMessage
to get more information about such
errors.
The command string can include multiple SQL commands
(separated by semicolons). Multiple queries sent in a single
PQexec
call are processed in a single transaction, unless
there are explicit BEGIN
/COMMIT
commands included in the query string to divide it into multiple
transactions. (See Section 53.2.2.1
for more details about how the server handles multi-query strings.)
Note however that the returned
PGresult
structure describes only the result
of the last command executed from the string. Should one of the
commands fail, processing of the string stops with it and the returned
PGresult
describes the error condition.
PQexecParams
Submits a command to the server and waits for the result, with the ability to pass parameters separately from the SQL command text.
PGresult *PQexecParams(PGconn *conn, const char *command, int nParams, const Oid *paramTypes, const char * const *paramValues, const int *paramLengths, const int *paramFormats, int resultFormat);
PQexecParams
is like PQexec
, but offers additional
functionality: parameter values can be specified separately from the command
string proper, and query results can be requested in either text or binary
format. PQexecParams
is supported only in protocol 3.0 and later
connections; it will fail when using protocol 2.0.
The function arguments are:
conn
The connection object to send the command through.
command
The SQL command string to be executed. If parameters are used,
they are referred to in the command string as $1
,
$2
, etc.
nParams
The number of parameters supplied; it is the length of the arrays
paramTypes[]
, paramValues[]
,
paramLengths[]
, and paramFormats[]
. (The
array pointers can be NULL
when nParams
is zero.)
paramTypes[]
Specifies, by OID, the data types to be assigned to the
parameter symbols. If paramTypes
is
NULL
, or any particular element in the array
is zero, the server infers a data type for the parameter symbol
in the same way it would do for an untyped literal string.
paramValues[]
Specifies the actual values of the parameters. A null pointer in this array means the corresponding parameter is null; otherwise the pointer points to a zero-terminated text string (for text format) or binary data in the format expected by the server (for binary format).
paramLengths[]
Specifies the actual data lengths of binary-format parameters. It is ignored for null parameters and text-format parameters. The array pointer can be null when there are no binary parameters.
paramFormats[]
Specifies whether parameters are text (put a zero in the array entry for the corresponding parameter) or binary (put a one in the array entry for the corresponding parameter). If the array pointer is null then all parameters are presumed to be text strings.
Values passed in binary format require knowledge of
the internal representation expected by the backend.
For example, integers must be passed in network byte
order. Passing numeric
values requires
knowledge of the server storage format, as implemented
in
src/backend/utils/adt/numeric.c::numeric_send()
and
src/backend/utils/adt/numeric.c::numeric_recv()
.
resultFormat
Specify zero to obtain results in text format, or one to obtain results in binary format. (There is not currently a provision to obtain different result columns in different formats, although that is possible in the underlying protocol.)
The primary advantage of PQexecParams
over
PQexec
is that parameter values can be separated from the
command string, thus avoiding the need for tedious and error-prone
quoting and escaping.
Unlike PQexec
, PQexecParams
allows at most
one SQL command in the given string. (There can be semicolons in it,
but not more than one nonempty command.) This is a limitation of the
underlying protocol, but has some usefulness as an extra defense against
SQL-injection attacks.
Specifying parameter types via OIDs is tedious, particularly if you prefer not to hard-wire particular OID values into your program. However, you can avoid doing so even in cases where the server by itself cannot determine the type of the parameter, or chooses a different type than you want. In the SQL command text, attach an explicit cast to the parameter symbol to show what data type you will send. For example:
SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE x = $1::bigint;
This forces parameter $1
to be treated as bigint
, whereas
by default it would be assigned the same type as x
. Forcing the
parameter type decision, either this way or by specifying a numeric type OID,
is strongly recommended when sending parameter values in binary format, because
binary format has less redundancy than text format and so there is less chance
that the server will detect a type mismatch mistake for you.
PQprepare
Submits a request to create a prepared statement with the given parameters, and waits for completion.
PGresult *PQprepare(PGconn *conn, const char *stmtName, const char *query, int nParams, const Oid *paramTypes);
PQprepare
creates a prepared statement for later
execution with PQexecPrepared
. This feature allows
commands to be executed repeatedly without being parsed and
planned each time; see PREPARE for details.
PQprepare
is supported only in protocol 3.0 and later
connections; it will fail when using protocol 2.0.
The function creates a prepared statement named
stmtName
from the query
string, which
must contain a single SQL command. stmtName
can be
""
to create an unnamed statement, in which case any
pre-existing unnamed statement is automatically replaced; otherwise
it is an error if the statement name is already defined in the
current session. If any parameters are used, they are referred
to in the query as $1
, $2
, etc.
nParams
is the number of parameters for which types
are pre-specified in the array paramTypes[]
. (The
array pointer can be NULL
when
nParams
is zero.) paramTypes[]
specifies, by OID, the data types to be assigned to the parameter
symbols. If paramTypes
is NULL
,
or any particular element in the array is zero, the server assigns
a data type to the parameter symbol in the same way it would do
for an untyped literal string. Also, the query can use parameter
symbols with numbers higher than nParams
; data types
will be inferred for these symbols as well. (See
PQdescribePrepared
for a means to find out
what data types were inferred.)
As with PQexec
, the result is normally a
PGresult
object whose contents indicate
server-side success or failure. A null result indicates
out-of-memory or inability to send the command at all. Use
PQerrorMessage
to get more information about
such errors.
Prepared statements for use with PQexecPrepared
can also
be created by executing SQL PREPARE
statements. Also, although there is no libpq
function for deleting a prepared statement, the SQL DEALLOCATE statement
can be used for that purpose.
PQexecPrepared
Sends a request to execute a prepared statement with given parameters, and waits for the result.
PGresult *PQexecPrepared(PGconn *conn, const char *stmtName, int nParams, const char * const *paramValues, const int *paramLengths, const int *paramFormats, int resultFormat);
PQexecPrepared
is like PQexecParams
,
but the command to be executed is specified by naming a
previously-prepared statement, instead of giving a query string.
This feature allows commands that will be used repeatedly to be
parsed and planned just once, rather than each time they are
executed. The statement must have been prepared previously in
the current session. PQexecPrepared
is supported
only in protocol 3.0 and later connections; it will fail when
using protocol 2.0.
The parameters are identical to PQexecParams
, except that the
name of a prepared statement is given instead of a query string, and the
paramTypes[]
parameter is not present (it is not needed since
the prepared statement's parameter types were determined when it was created).
PQdescribePrepared
Submits a request to obtain information about the specified prepared statement, and waits for completion.
PGresult *PQdescribePrepared(PGconn *conn, const char *stmtName);
PQdescribePrepared
allows an application to obtain
information about a previously prepared statement.
PQdescribePrepared
is supported only in protocol 3.0
and later connections; it will fail when using protocol 2.0.
stmtName
can be ""
or NULL
to reference
the unnamed statement, otherwise it must be the name of an existing
prepared statement. On success, a PGresult
with
status PGRES_COMMAND_OK
is returned. The
functions PQnparams
and
PQparamtype
can be applied to this
PGresult
to obtain information about the parameters
of the prepared statement, and the functions
PQnfields
, PQfname
,
PQftype
, etc provide information about the
result columns (if any) of the statement.
PQdescribePortal
Submits a request to obtain information about the specified portal, and waits for completion.
PGresult *PQdescribePortal(PGconn *conn, const char *portalName);
PQdescribePortal
allows an application to obtain
information about a previously created portal.
(libpq does not provide any direct access to
portals, but you can use this function to inspect the properties
of a cursor created with a DECLARE CURSOR
SQL command.)
PQdescribePortal
is supported only in protocol 3.0
and later connections; it will fail when using protocol 2.0.
portalName
can be ""
or NULL
to reference
the unnamed portal, otherwise it must be the name of an existing
portal. On success, a PGresult
with status
PGRES_COMMAND_OK
is returned. The functions
PQnfields
, PQfname
,
PQftype
, etc can be applied to the
PGresult
to obtain information about the result
columns (if any) of the portal.
The PGresult
structure encapsulates the result returned by the server.
libpq application programmers should be
careful to maintain the PGresult
abstraction.
Use the accessor functions below to get at the contents of
PGresult
. Avoid directly referencing the
fields of the PGresult
structure because they
are subject to change in the future.
PQresultStatus
Returns the result status of the command.
ExecStatusType PQresultStatus(const PGresult *res);
PQresultStatus
can return one of the following values:
PGRES_EMPTY_QUERY
The string sent to the server was empty.
PGRES_COMMAND_OK
Successful completion of a command returning no data.
PGRES_TUPLES_OK
Successful completion of a command returning data (such as
a SELECT
or SHOW
).
PGRES_COPY_OUT
Copy Out (from server) data transfer started.
PGRES_COPY_IN
Copy In (to server) data transfer started.
PGRES_BAD_RESPONSE
The server's response was not understood.
PGRES_NONFATAL_ERROR
A nonfatal error (a notice or warning) occurred.
PGRES_FATAL_ERROR
A fatal error occurred.
PGRES_COPY_BOTH
Copy In/Out (to and from server) data transfer started. This feature is currently used only for streaming replication, so this status should not occur in ordinary applications.
PGRES_SINGLE_TUPLE
The PGresult
contains a single result tuple
from the current command. This status occurs only when
single-row mode has been selected for the query
(see Section 34.5).
If the result status is PGRES_TUPLES_OK
or
PGRES_SINGLE_TUPLE
, then
the functions described below can be used to retrieve the rows
returned by the query. Note that a SELECT
command that happens to retrieve zero rows still shows
PGRES_TUPLES_OK
.
PGRES_COMMAND_OK
is for commands that can never
return rows (INSERT
or UPDATE
without a RETURNING
clause,
etc.). A response of PGRES_EMPTY_QUERY
might
indicate a bug in the client software.
A result of status PGRES_NONFATAL_ERROR
will
never be returned directly by PQexec
or other
query execution functions; results of this kind are instead passed
to the notice processor (see Section 34.12).
PQresStatus
Converts the enumerated type returned by
PQresultStatus
into a string constant describing the
status code. The caller should not free the result.
char *PQresStatus(ExecStatusType status);
PQresultErrorMessage
Returns the error message associated with the command, or an empty string if there was no error.
char *PQresultErrorMessage(const PGresult *res);
If there was an error, the returned string will include a trailing
newline. The caller should not free the result directly. It will
be freed when the associated PGresult
handle is
passed to PQclear
.
Immediately following a PQexec
or
PQgetResult
call,
PQerrorMessage
(on the connection) will return
the same string as PQresultErrorMessage
(on
the result). However, a PGresult
will
retain its error message until destroyed, whereas the connection's
error message will change when subsequent operations are done.
Use PQresultErrorMessage
when you want to
know the status associated with a particular
PGresult
; use
PQerrorMessage
when you want to know the
status from the latest operation on the connection.
PQresultVerboseErrorMessage
Returns a reformatted version of the error message associated with
a PGresult
object.
char *PQresultVerboseErrorMessage(const PGresult *res, PGVerbosity verbosity, PGContextVisibility show_context);
In some situations a client might wish to obtain a more detailed
version of a previously-reported error.
PQresultVerboseErrorMessage
addresses this need
by computing the message that would have been produced
by PQresultErrorMessage
if the specified
verbosity settings had been in effect for the connection when the
given PGresult
was generated. If
the PGresult
is not an error result,
“PGresult is not an error result” is reported instead.
The returned string includes a trailing newline.
Unlike most other functions for extracting data from
a PGresult
, the result of this function is a freshly
allocated string. The caller must free it
using PQfreemem()
when the string is no longer needed.
A NULL return is possible if there is insufficient memory.
PQresultErrorField
Returns an individual field of an error report.
char *PQresultErrorField(const PGresult *res, int fieldcode);
fieldcode
is an error field identifier; see the symbols
listed below. NULL
is returned if the
PGresult
is not an error or warning result,
or does not include the specified field. Field values will normally
not include a trailing newline. The caller should not free the
result directly. It will be freed when the
associated PGresult
handle is passed to
PQclear
.
The following field codes are available:
PG_DIAG_SEVERITY
The severity; the field contents are ERROR
,
FATAL
, or PANIC
(in an error message),
or WARNING
, NOTICE
, DEBUG
,
INFO
, or LOG
(in a notice message), or
a localized translation of one of these. Always present.
PG_DIAG_SEVERITY_NONLOCALIZED
The severity; the field contents are ERROR
,
FATAL
, or PANIC
(in an error message),
or WARNING
, NOTICE
, DEBUG
,
INFO
, or LOG
(in a notice message).
This is identical to the PG_DIAG_SEVERITY
field except
that the contents are never localized. This is present only in
reports generated by PostgreSQL versions 9.6
and later.
PG_DIAG_SQLSTATE
The SQLSTATE code for the error. The SQLSTATE code identifies the type of error that has occurred; it can be used by front-end applications to perform specific operations (such as error handling) in response to a particular database error. For a list of the possible SQLSTATE codes, see Appendix A. This field is not localizable, and is always present.
PG_DIAG_MESSAGE_PRIMARY
The primary human-readable error message (typically one line). Always present.
PG_DIAG_MESSAGE_DETAIL
Detail: an optional secondary error message carrying more detail about the problem. Might run to multiple lines.
PG_DIAG_MESSAGE_HINT
Hint: an optional suggestion what to do about the problem. This is intended to differ from detail in that it offers advice (potentially inappropriate) rather than hard facts. Might run to multiple lines.
PG_DIAG_STATEMENT_POSITION
A string containing a decimal integer indicating an error cursor position as an index into the original statement string. The first character has index 1, and positions are measured in characters not bytes.
PG_DIAG_INTERNAL_POSITION
This is defined the same as the
PG_DIAG_STATEMENT_POSITION
field, but it is used
when the cursor position refers to an internally generated
command rather than the one submitted by the client. The
PG_DIAG_INTERNAL_QUERY
field will always appear when
this field appears.
PG_DIAG_INTERNAL_QUERY
The text of a failed internally-generated command. This could be, for example, a SQL query issued by a PL/pgSQL function.
PG_DIAG_CONTEXT
An indication of the context in which the error occurred. Presently this includes a call stack traceback of active procedural language functions and internally-generated queries. The trace is one entry per line, most recent first.
PG_DIAG_SCHEMA_NAME
If the error was associated with a specific database object, the name of the schema containing that object, if any.
PG_DIAG_TABLE_NAME
If the error was associated with a specific table, the name of the table. (Refer to the schema name field for the name of the table's schema.)
PG_DIAG_COLUMN_NAME
If the error was associated with a specific table column, the name of the column. (Refer to the schema and table name fields to identify the table.)
PG_DIAG_DATATYPE_NAME
If the error was associated with a specific data type, the name of the data type. (Refer to the schema name field for the name of the data type's schema.)
PG_DIAG_CONSTRAINT_NAME
If the error was associated with a specific constraint, the name of the constraint. Refer to fields listed above for the associated table or domain. (For this purpose, indexes are treated as constraints, even if they weren't created with constraint syntax.)
PG_DIAG_SOURCE_FILE
The file name of the source-code location where the error was reported.
PG_DIAG_SOURCE_LINE
The line number of the source-code location where the error was reported.
PG_DIAG_SOURCE_FUNCTION
The name of the source-code function reporting the error.
The fields for schema name, table name, column name, data type name, and constraint name are supplied only for a limited number of error types; see Appendix A. Do not assume that the presence of any of these fields guarantees the presence of another field. Core error sources observe the interrelationships noted above, but user-defined functions may use these fields in other ways. In the same vein, do not assume that these fields denote contemporary objects in the current database.
The client is responsible for formatting displayed information to meet its needs; in particular it should break long lines as needed. Newline characters appearing in the error message fields should be treated as paragraph breaks, not line breaks.
Errors generated internally by libpq will have severity and primary message, but typically no other fields. Errors returned by a pre-3.0-protocol server will include severity and primary message, and sometimes a detail message, but no other fields.
Note that error fields are only available from
PGresult
objects, not
PGconn
objects; there is no
PQerrorField
function.
PQclear
Frees the storage associated with a
PGresult
. Every command result should be
freed via PQclear
when it is no longer
needed.
void PQclear(PGresult *res);
You can keep a PGresult
object around for
as long as you need it; it does not go away when you issue a new
command, nor even if you close the connection. To get rid of it,
you must call PQclear
. Failure to do this
will result in memory leaks in your application.
These functions are used to extract information from a
PGresult
object that represents a successful
query result (that is, one that has status
PGRES_TUPLES_OK
or PGRES_SINGLE_TUPLE
).
They can also be used to extract
information from a successful Describe operation: a Describe's result
has all the same column information that actual execution of the query
would provide, but it has zero rows. For objects with other status values,
these functions will act as though the result has zero rows and zero columns.
PQntuples
Returns the number of rows (tuples) in the query result.
(Note that PGresult
objects are limited to no more
than INT_MAX
rows, so an int
result is
sufficient.)
int PQntuples(const PGresult *res);
PQnfields
Returns the number of columns (fields) in each row of the query result.
int PQnfields(const PGresult *res);
PQfname
Returns the column name associated with the given column number.
Column numbers start at 0. The caller should not free the result
directly. It will be freed when the associated
PGresult
handle is passed to
PQclear
.
char *PQfname(const PGresult *res, int column_number);
NULL
is returned if the column number is out of range.
PQfnumber
Returns the column number associated with the given column name.
int PQfnumber(const PGresult *res, const char *column_name);
-1 is returned if the given name does not match any column.
The given name is treated like an identifier in an SQL command, that is, it is downcased unless double-quoted. For example, given a query result generated from the SQL command:
SELECT 1 AS FOO, 2 AS "BAR";
we would have the results:
PQfname(res, 0) foo PQfname(res, 1) BAR PQfnumber(res, "FOO") 0 PQfnumber(res, "foo") 0 PQfnumber(res, "BAR") -1 PQfnumber(res, "\"BAR\"") 1
PQftable
Returns the OID of the table from which the given column was fetched. Column numbers start at 0.
Oid PQftable(const PGresult *res, int column_number);
InvalidOid
is returned if the column number is out of range,
or if the specified column is not a simple reference to a table column,
or when using pre-3.0 protocol.
You can query the system table pg_class
to determine
exactly which table is referenced.
The type Oid
and the constant
InvalidOid
will be defined when you include
the libpq header file. They will both
be some integer type.
PQftablecol
Returns the column number (within its table) of the column making up the specified query result column. Query-result column numbers start at 0, but table columns have nonzero numbers.
int PQftablecol(const PGresult *res, int column_number);
Zero is returned if the column number is out of range, or if the specified column is not a simple reference to a table column, or when using pre-3.0 protocol.
PQfformat
Returns the format code indicating the format of the given column. Column numbers start at 0.
int PQfformat(const PGresult *res, int column_number);
Format code zero indicates textual data representation, while format code one indicates binary representation. (Other codes are reserved for future definition.)
PQftype
Returns the data type associated with the given column number. The integer returned is the internal OID number of the type. Column numbers start at 0.
Oid PQftype(const PGresult *res, int column_number);
You can query the system table pg_type
to
obtain the names and properties of the various data types. The
OIDs of the built-in data types are defined
in the file src/include/catalog/pg_type_d.h
in the source tree.
PQfmod
Returns the type modifier of the column associated with the given column number. Column numbers start at 0.
int PQfmod(const PGresult *res, int column_number);
The interpretation of modifier values is type-specific; they typically indicate precision or size limits. The value -1 is used to indicate “no information available”. Most data types do not use modifiers, in which case the value is always -1.
PQfsize
Returns the size in bytes of the column associated with the given column number. Column numbers start at 0.
int PQfsize(const PGresult *res, int column_number);
PQfsize
returns the space allocated for this column
in a database row, in other words the size of the server's
internal representation of the data type. (Accordingly, it is
not really very useful to clients.) A negative value indicates
the data type is variable-length.
PQbinaryTuples
Returns 1 if the PGresult
contains binary data
and 0 if it contains text data.
int PQbinaryTuples(const PGresult *res);
This function is deprecated (except for its use in connection with
COPY
), because it is possible for a single
PGresult
to contain text data in some columns and
binary data in others. PQfformat
is preferred.
PQbinaryTuples
returns 1 only if all columns of the
result are binary (format 1).
PQgetvalue
Returns a single field value of one row of a
PGresult
. Row and column numbers start
at 0. The caller should not free the result directly. It will
be freed when the associated PGresult
handle is
passed to PQclear
.
char *PQgetvalue(const PGresult *res, int row_number, int column_number);
For data in text format, the value returned by
PQgetvalue
is a null-terminated character
string representation of the field value. For data in binary
format, the value is in the binary representation determined by
the data type's typsend
and typreceive
functions. (The value is actually followed by a zero byte in
this case too, but that is not ordinarily useful, since the
value is likely to contain embedded nulls.)
An empty string is returned if the field value is null. See
PQgetisnull
to distinguish null values from
empty-string values.
The pointer returned by PQgetvalue
points
to storage that is part of the PGresult
structure. One should not modify the data it points to, and one
must explicitly copy the data into other storage if it is to be
used past the lifetime of the PGresult
structure itself.
PQgetisnull
Tests a field for a null value. Row and column numbers start at 0.
int PQgetisnull(const PGresult *res, int row_number, int column_number);
This function returns 1 if the field is null and 0 if it
contains a non-null value. (Note that
PQgetvalue
will return an empty string,
not a null pointer, for a null field.)
PQgetlength
Returns the actual length of a field value in bytes. Row and column numbers start at 0.
int PQgetlength(const PGresult *res, int row_number, int column_number);
This is the actual data length for the particular data value,
that is, the size of the object pointed to by
PQgetvalue
. For text data format this is
the same as strlen()
. For binary format this is
essential information. Note that one should not
rely on PQfsize
to obtain the actual data
length.
PQnparams
Returns the number of parameters of a prepared statement.
int PQnparams(const PGresult *res);
This function is only useful when inspecting the result of
PQdescribePrepared
. For other types of queries it
will return zero.
PQparamtype
Returns the data type of the indicated statement parameter. Parameter numbers start at 0.
Oid PQparamtype(const PGresult *res, int param_number);
This function is only useful when inspecting the result of
PQdescribePrepared
. For other types of queries it
will return zero.
PQprint
Prints out all the rows and, optionally, the column names to the specified output stream.
void PQprint(FILE *fout, /* output stream */ const PGresult *res, const PQprintOpt *po); typedef struct { pqbool header; /* print output field headings and row count */ pqbool align; /* fill align the fields */ pqbool standard; /* old brain dead format */ pqbool html3; /* output HTML tables */ pqbool expanded; /* expand tables */ pqbool pager; /* use pager for output if needed */ char *fieldSep; /* field separator */ char *tableOpt; /* attributes for HTML table element */ char *caption; /* HTML table caption */ char **fieldName; /* null-terminated array of replacement field names */ } PQprintOpt;
This function was formerly used by psql to print query results, but this is no longer the case. Note that it assumes all the data is in text format.
These functions are used to extract other information from
PGresult
objects.
PQcmdStatus
Returns the command status tag from the SQL command that generated
the PGresult
.
char *PQcmdStatus(PGresult *res);
Commonly this is just the name of the command, but it might include
additional data such as the number of rows processed. The caller
should not free the result directly. It will be freed when the
associated PGresult
handle is passed to
PQclear
.
PQcmdTuples
Returns the number of rows affected by the SQL command.
char *PQcmdTuples(PGresult *res);
This function returns a string containing the number of rows
affected by the SQL statement that generated the
PGresult
. This function can only be used following
the execution of a SELECT
, CREATE TABLE AS
,
INSERT
, UPDATE
, DELETE
,
MOVE
, FETCH
, or COPY
statement,
or an EXECUTE
of a prepared query that contains an
INSERT
, UPDATE
, or DELETE
statement.
If the command that generated the PGresult
was anything
else, PQcmdTuples
returns an empty string. The caller
should not free the return value directly. It will be freed when
the associated PGresult
handle is passed to
PQclear
.
PQoidValue
Returns the OID
of the inserted row, if the SQL command was an
INSERT
that inserted exactly one row into a table that
has OIDs, or a EXECUTE
of a prepared query containing
a suitable INSERT
statement. Otherwise, this function
returns InvalidOid
. This function will also
return InvalidOid
if the table affected by the
INSERT
statement does not contain OIDs.
Oid PQoidValue(const PGresult *res);
PQoidStatus
This function is deprecated in favor of
PQoidValue
and is not thread-safe.
It returns a string with the OID of the inserted row, while
PQoidValue
returns the OID value.
char *PQoidStatus(const PGresult *res);
PQescapeLiteral
char *PQescapeLiteral(PGconn *conn, const char *str, size_t length);
PQescapeLiteral
escapes a string for
use within an SQL command. This is useful when inserting data
values as literal constants in SQL commands. Certain characters
(such as quotes and backslashes) must be escaped to prevent them
from being interpreted specially by the SQL parser.
PQescapeLiteral
performs this operation.
PQescapeLiteral
returns an escaped version of the
str
parameter in memory allocated with
malloc()
. This memory should be freed using
PQfreemem()
when the result is no longer needed.
A terminating zero byte is not required, and should not be
counted in length
. (If a terminating zero byte is found
before length
bytes are processed,
PQescapeLiteral
stops at the zero; the behavior is
thus rather like strncpy
.) The
return string has all special characters replaced so that they can
be properly processed by the PostgreSQL
string literal parser. A terminating zero byte is also added. The
single quotes that must surround PostgreSQL
string literals are included in the result string.
On error, PQescapeLiteral
returns NULL
and a suitable
message is stored in the conn
object.
It is especially important to do proper escaping when handling strings that were received from an untrustworthy source. Otherwise there is a security risk: you are vulnerable to “SQL injection” attacks wherein unwanted SQL commands are fed to your database.
Note that it is not necessary nor correct to do escaping when a data
value is passed as a separate parameter in PQexecParams
or
its sibling routines.
PQescapeIdentifier
char *PQescapeIdentifier(PGconn *conn, const char *str, size_t length);
PQescapeIdentifier
escapes a string for
use as an SQL identifier, such as a table, column, or function name.
This is useful when a user-supplied identifier might contain
special characters that would otherwise not be interpreted as part
of the identifier by the SQL parser, or when the identifier might
contain upper case characters whose case should be preserved.
PQescapeIdentifier
returns a version of the
str
parameter escaped as an SQL identifier
in memory allocated with malloc()
. This memory must be
freed using PQfreemem()
when the result is no longer
needed. A terminating zero byte is not required, and should not be
counted in length
. (If a terminating zero byte is found
before length
bytes are processed,
PQescapeIdentifier
stops at the zero; the behavior is
thus rather like strncpy
.) The
return string has all special characters replaced so that it
will be properly processed as an SQL identifier. A terminating zero byte
is also added. The return string will also be surrounded by double
quotes.
On error, PQescapeIdentifier
returns NULL
and a suitable
message is stored in the conn
object.
As with string literals, to prevent SQL injection attacks, SQL identifiers must be escaped when they are received from an untrustworthy source.
PQescapeStringConn
size_t PQescapeStringConn(PGconn *conn, char *to, const char *from, size_t length, int *error);
PQescapeStringConn
escapes string literals, much like
PQescapeLiteral
. Unlike PQescapeLiteral
,
the caller is responsible for providing an appropriately sized buffer.
Furthermore, PQescapeStringConn
does not generate the
single quotes that must surround PostgreSQL string
literals; they should be provided in the SQL command that the
result is inserted into. The parameter from
points to
the first character of the string that is to be escaped, and the
length
parameter gives the number of bytes in this
string. A terminating zero byte is not required, and should not be
counted in length
. (If a terminating zero byte is found
before length
bytes are processed,
PQescapeStringConn
stops at the zero; the behavior is
thus rather like strncpy
.) to
shall point
to a buffer that is able to hold at least one more byte than twice
the value of length
, otherwise the behavior is undefined.
Behavior is likewise undefined if the to
and
from
strings overlap.
If the error
parameter is not NULL
, then
*error
is set to zero on success, nonzero on error.
Presently the only possible error conditions involve invalid multibyte
encoding in the source string. The output string is still generated
on error, but it can be expected that the server will reject it as
malformed. On error, a suitable message is stored in the
conn
object, whether or not error
is NULL
.
PQescapeStringConn
returns the number of bytes written
to to
, not including the terminating zero byte.
PQescapeString
PQescapeString
is an older, deprecated version of
PQescapeStringConn
.
size_t PQescapeString (char *to, const char *from, size_t length);
The only difference from PQescapeStringConn
is that
PQescapeString
does not take PGconn
or error
parameters.
Because of this, it cannot adjust its behavior depending on the
connection properties (such as character encoding) and therefore
it might give the wrong results. Also, it has no way
to report error conditions.
PQescapeString
can be used safely in
client programs that work with only one PostgreSQL
connection at a time (in this case it can find out what it needs to
know “behind the scenes”). In other contexts it is a security
hazard and should be avoided in favor of
PQescapeStringConn
.
PQescapeByteaConn
Escapes binary data for use within an SQL command with the type
bytea
. As with PQescapeStringConn
,
this is only used when inserting data directly into an SQL command string.
unsigned char *PQescapeByteaConn(PGconn *conn, const unsigned char *from, size_t from_length, size_t *to_length);
Certain byte values must be escaped when used as part of a
bytea
literal in an SQL statement.
PQescapeByteaConn
escapes bytes using
either hex encoding or backslash escaping. See Section 8.4 for more information.
The from
parameter points to the first
byte of the string that is to be escaped, and the
from_length
parameter gives the number of
bytes in this binary string. (A terminating zero byte is
neither necessary nor counted.) The to_length
parameter points to a variable that will hold the resultant
escaped string length. This result string length includes the terminating
zero byte of the result.
PQescapeByteaConn
returns an escaped version of the
from
parameter binary string in memory
allocated with malloc()
. This memory should be freed using
PQfreemem()
when the result is no longer needed. The
return string has all special characters replaced so that they can
be properly processed by the PostgreSQL
string literal parser, and the bytea
input function. A
terminating zero byte is also added. The single quotes that must
surround PostgreSQL string literals are
not part of the result string.
On error, a null pointer is returned, and a suitable error message
is stored in the conn
object. Currently, the only
possible error is insufficient memory for the result string.
PQescapeBytea
PQescapeBytea
is an older, deprecated version of
PQescapeByteaConn
.
unsigned char *PQescapeBytea(const unsigned char *from, size_t from_length, size_t *to_length);
The only difference from PQescapeByteaConn
is that
PQescapeBytea
does not take a PGconn
parameter. Because of this, PQescapeBytea
can
only be used safely in client programs that use a single
PostgreSQL connection at a time (in this case
it can find out what it needs to know “behind the
scenes”). It might give the wrong results if
used in programs that use multiple database connections (use
PQescapeByteaConn
in such cases).
PQunescapeBytea
Converts a string representation of binary data into binary data
— the reverse of PQescapeBytea
. This
is needed when retrieving bytea
data in text format,
but not when retrieving it in binary format.
unsigned char *PQunescapeBytea(const unsigned char *from, size_t *to_length);
The from
parameter points to a string
such as might be returned by PQgetvalue
when applied
to a bytea
column. PQunescapeBytea
converts this string representation into its binary representation.
It returns a pointer to a buffer allocated with
malloc()
, or NULL
on error, and puts the size of
the buffer in to_length
. The result must be
freed using PQfreemem
when it is no longer needed.
This conversion is not exactly the inverse of
PQescapeBytea
, because the string is not expected
to be “escaped” when received from PQgetvalue
.
In particular this means there is no need for string quoting considerations,
and so no need for a PGconn
parameter.