Graphing query results from within psql.

Below is an example of feeding query output to gnuplot without leaving
psql. I'd like to call it as "select graph(select * from example)", just
for fun. What do I need to learn to do that, please? Can I create a
function that uses "\o"? I think not, because a function runs server-side
and \o is a client side feature.

This is not a production issue, just learning, for fun.

# psql -U postgres
psql (8.4.15)
Type "help" for help.

postgres=# \t
Showing only tuples.
postgres=# \a
Output format is unaligned.
postgres=# \f ' '
Field separator is " ".
postgres=# select * from example;
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
postgres=# \o | /usr/bin/gnuplot
postgres=# select 'set title "My Graph"; set terminal dumb 78 24; set key
off; set ylabel "Time"; set xlabel "Servers";' || 'plot ''-'' with lines;'
; select * from example;
postgres=# \o

My Graph
Time
4
++----------+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+---------**
+ + + + + +
**** +
| **** |
3.5 ++ **** ++
| **** |
| **** |
3 ++ *** ++
| **** |
| **** |
2.5 ++ **** ++
| **** |
| **** |
2 ++ *** ++
| **** |
| **** |
1.5 ++ **** ++
| **** |
+ **** + + + + + +
1 **----------+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+---------++
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Servers

postgres=#

Best,
Aleksey

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