Re: Bytea network traffic: binary vs text result format

[Markus Schiltknecht <markus(at)bluegap(dot)ch>]

Hi,

Miha D. Puc wrote:
> So there is a need (people asking) and reason (performance) to use
> binary format.

You are aware that PostgreSQL itself *can* transfer values in binary 
format? Check the Documentation: "43.1.3. Formats and Format Codes":

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/protocol.html

This works since protocol version 3, AFAICT. The client needs to support 
that, though. But the php pgsql binding, just as an example, doesn't use 
that feature.

> So with all the above there should be a utility for conversion between
> binary format and native types and/or string format in libpq.

There already are. Not in libpq, though. Most (if not all) internal 
types have those functions. See for example:

  # SELECT typinput, typoutput, typreceive, typsend
  #   FROM pg_type WHERE typname='int4';

   typinput | typoutput | typreceive | typsend
  ----------+-----------+------------+----------
   int4in   | int4out   | int4recv   | int4send
  (1 row)


The input and output functions deal with the textual representation, 
while send and receive convert to a binary representation in network 
byte order.

Hope that helps.

Regards

Markus