you can use a cursor to read rows one at a time...
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Igor Natanzon |**| E-mail: igor@sba.miami.edu
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On Sun, 29 Jun 1997, Alexander Demenshin wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Currently libpq works as follows:
>
> If we doing a select, all rows fetched in memory, after this
> it returned to the caller.
>
> All OK, but: if number of rows is too big, we use a LOT of memory.
>
> And, if select scans large table, we get first result after long
> (relatively ;) time...
>
> Many SQL servers will return rows as soon as it found (ASAF), and this
> behavior is more friendly - human don't need to wait before
> first result is appears.
>
> Just imagine typical query from WEB: large database,
> and select with condition which will take long time.
>
> In my case, I've database with >150,000 rows, and often query
> is based on RE, so search will take long time. For end user,
> this looks like server hang, at least if he used it first time.
>
> Of course, implementing ASAF will require some changes in programs
> which use libpq, and will cost something - e.g., program will not
> know total number of rows returned (does anybody use row count?).
>
> But at least this functionality must be as option, IMHO.
>
> Especially, when using psql in batch mode, nobody is interested
> in total row count, since: 1) it returned after last row;
> 2) after last row is fetched from psql output, we already know
> total row count. ;)
>
> I've modified libpq for my purposes, but what do you think about
> adding this to future versions? May be, as alternative for
> currently distributed libpq...
>
> /Al
>
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