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2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>32.8. The Fast-Path Interface</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="libpq-cancel.html" title="32.7. Canceling Queries in Progress" /><link rel="next" href="libpq-notify.html" title="32.9. Asynchronous Notification" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">32.8. The Fast-Path Interface</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="libpq-cancel.html" title="32.7. Canceling Queries in Progress">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="libpq.html" title="Chapter 32. libpq — C Library">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 32. <span class="application">libpq</span> — C Library</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="libpq-notify.html" title="32.9. Asynchronous Notification">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="LIBPQ-FASTPATH"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">32.8. The Fast-Path Interface <a href="#LIBPQ-FASTPATH" class="id_link">#</a></h2></div></div></div><a id="id-1.7.3.15.2" class="indexterm"></a><p>
3 <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> provides a fast-path interface
4 to send simple function calls to the server.
5 </p><div class="tip"><h3 class="title">Tip</h3><p>
6 This interface is somewhat obsolete, as one can achieve similar
7 performance and greater functionality by setting up a prepared
8 statement to define the function call. Then, executing the statement
9 with binary transmission of parameters and results substitutes for a
10 fast-path function call.
12 The function <code class="function" id="LIBPQ-PQFN">PQfn</code><a id="id-1.7.3.15.5.2" class="indexterm"></a>
13 requests execution of a server function via the fast-path interface:
14 </p><pre class="synopsis">
15 PGresult *PQfn(PGconn *conn,
20 const PQArgBlock *args,
35 The <em class="parameter"><code>fnid</code></em> argument is the OID of the function to be
36 executed. <em class="parameter"><code>args</code></em> and <em class="parameter"><code>nargs</code></em> define the
37 parameters to be passed to the function; they must match the declared
38 function argument list. When the <em class="parameter"><code>isint</code></em> field of a
39 parameter structure is true, the <em class="parameter"><code>u.integer</code></em> value is sent
40 to the server as an integer of the indicated length (this must be
41 2 or 4 bytes); proper byte-swapping occurs. When <em class="parameter"><code>isint</code></em>
42 is false, the indicated number of bytes at <em class="parameter"><code>*u.ptr</code></em> are
43 sent with no processing; the data must be in the format expected by
44 the server for binary transmission of the function's argument data
45 type. (The declaration of <em class="parameter"><code>u.ptr</code></em> as being of
46 type <code class="type">int *</code> is historical; it would be better to consider
47 it <code class="type">void *</code>.)
48 <em class="parameter"><code>result_buf</code></em> points to the buffer in which to place
49 the function's return value. The caller must have allocated sufficient
50 space to store the return value. (There is no check!) The actual result
51 length in bytes will be returned in the integer pointed to by
52 <em class="parameter"><code>result_len</code></em>. If a 2- or 4-byte integer result
53 is expected, set <em class="parameter"><code>result_is_int</code></em> to 1, otherwise
54 set it to 0. Setting <em class="parameter"><code>result_is_int</code></em> to 1 causes
55 <span class="application">libpq</span> to byte-swap the value if necessary, so that it
56 is delivered as a proper <code class="type">int</code> value for the client machine;
57 note that a 4-byte integer is delivered into <em class="parameter"><code>*result_buf</code></em>
58 for either allowed result size.
59 When <em class="parameter"><code>result_is_int</code></em> is 0, the binary-format byte string
60 sent by the server is returned unmodified. (In this case it's better
61 to consider <em class="parameter"><code>result_buf</code></em> as being of
62 type <code class="type">void *</code>.)
64 <code class="function">PQfn</code> always returns a valid
65 <code class="structname">PGresult</code> pointer, with
66 status <code class="literal">PGRES_COMMAND_OK</code> for success
67 or <code class="literal">PGRES_FATAL_ERROR</code> if some problem was encountered.
68 The result status should be
69 checked before the result is used. The caller is responsible for
70 freeing the <code class="structname">PGresult</code> with
71 <a class="xref" href="libpq-exec.html#LIBPQ-PQCLEAR"><code class="function">PQclear</code></a> when it is no longer needed.
73 To pass a NULL argument to the function, set
74 the <em class="parameter"><code>len</code></em> field of that parameter structure
75 to <code class="literal">-1</code>; the <em class="parameter"><code>isint</code></em>
76 and <em class="parameter"><code>u</code></em> fields are then irrelevant.
78 If the function returns NULL, <em class="parameter"><code>*result_len</code></em> is set
79 to <code class="literal">-1</code>, and <em class="parameter"><code>*result_buf</code></em> is not
82 Note that it is not possible to handle set-valued results when using
83 this interface. Also, the function must be a plain function, not an
84 aggregate, window function, or procedure.
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