Re: libpq Alternate Row Processor

On 2/3/17 3:53 PM, Kyle Gearhart wrote:
> The guts of pqRowProcessor in libpq does a good bit of work to maintain the internal data structure of a PGresult. There are a few use cases where the caller doesn't need the ability to access the result set row by row, column by column using PQgetvalue. Think of an ORM that is just going to copy the data from PGresult for each row into its own structures.
>
> I've got a working proof of concept that allows the caller to attach a callback that pqRowProcessor will call instead of going thru its own routine. This eliminates all the copying of data from the PGconn buffer to a PGresult buffer and then ultimately a series of PQgetvalue calls by the client. The callback allows the caller to receive each row's data directly from the PGconn buffer.
>
> It would require exposing struct pgDataValue in libpq-fe.h. The prototype for the callback pointer would be:
> int (*PQrowProcessorCB)(PGresult*, const PGdataValue*, int col_count, void *user_data);
>
> My initial testing shows a significant performance improvement. I'd like some opinions on this before wiring up a performance proof and updating the documentation for a formal patch submission.

I just did essentially the same thing for SPI (use a callback to allow
the caller to handle the tuple instead of shoving it into a tuplestore).
A simple test in plpython showed a 460% improvement.
--
Jim Nasby, Data Architect, Blue Treble Consulting, Austin TX
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