Chapter 43. PL/Perl — Perl Procedural Language

   Table of Contents

   43.1. PL/Perl Functions and Arguments
   43.2. Data Values in PL/Perl
   43.3. Built-in Functions

        43.3.1. Database Access from PL/Perl
        43.3.2. Utility Functions in PL/Perl

   43.4. Global Values in PL/Perl
   43.5. Trusted and Untrusted PL/Perl
   43.6. PL/Perl Triggers
   43.7. PL/Perl Event Triggers
   43.8. PL/Perl Under the Hood

        43.8.1. Configuration
        43.8.2. Limitations and Missing Features

   PL/Perl is a loadable procedural language that enables you to write
   PostgreSQL functions and procedures in the Perl programming language.

   The main advantage to using PL/Perl is that this allows use, within
   stored functions and procedures, of the manyfold “string munging”
   operators and functions available for Perl. Parsing complex strings
   might be easier using Perl than it is with the string functions and
   control structures provided in PL/pgSQL.

   To install PL/Perl in a particular database, use CREATE EXTENSION
   plperl.

Tip

   If a language is installed into template1, all subsequently created
   databases will have the language installed automatically.

Note

   Users of source packages must specially enable the build of PL/Perl
   during the installation process. (Refer to Chapter 17 for more
   information.) Users of binary packages might find PL/Perl in a separate
   subpackage.