Re: Bytea network traffic: binary vs text result format

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