Tom Lane wrote:
>
> Henk Jan Barendregt <henkjan@barendregt.xs4all.nl> writes:
> > How can i use libpq to return an int value when i access an INT or INT4
> > value
>
> Use atoi() ... what comes out of libpq is a character string always.
> It's up to you to convert it to whatever form you want it in.
>
> Actually, if you are really intent on avoiding the conversion step
> you can use a binary cursor and get the data in whatever the backend's
> internal format is. However I can't recommend this. I've found by
> measurement that the conversion time is insignificant compared to the
> rest of the work involved in a query, even for expensive-to-convert
> datatypes like DATETIME. And for that trivial savings you expend a
> lot of programming effort: you have to know what the backend's internal
> format *is*, and you have to be prepared to deal with cross-machine
> compatibility issues (maybe the backend is running on a machine with
> different endianness than your app is ... how will you even know?),
> cross-Postgres-version changes in the internal representation, yadda
> yadda. Much better to take the character string.
>
> But if you insist on doing it the hard way, read about DECLARE CURSOR
> and FETCH in the manual.
>
> regards, tom lane
Thanks a lot for the explanation. It is gave me some good reasons to
stay on
my path and convert the results to whatever i need.
Henk Jan
