Re: using CURSOR with PHP

On Sat, 2002-05-18 at 23:03, Eckhard Hoeffner wrote:
> >
> >I don't use cursors in web applications myself, since PostgreSQL
> >supports the excellent "SELECT ... LIMIT <n> OFFSET <m>" syntax in all
> >of the cases where I might otherwise have done so.
>
> That's what I wanted to avoid as this results in a little more
> work.
>
> >That's my experience to date, anyway - I'm prepared to find somewhere a
> >cursor might be a requirement - I know that if you wanted to write
> >cross-database portable code you would probably need to work with them.
> >
> >Regardless, unless you open your database connection as a persistent
> >connection, the database connection will be closed when the script
> >finishes, and that should clean up all that is necessary.
>
> I used persistent connections, however, I got lots of <defunct>
> processes.
> If the CURSOR is closed when the script has finished (pg_connect),
> it makes no sense (for me) using it, because I can not move within
> the results.

Right, so your problem is you're trying to use CURSOR, which you are
leaving open on the off-chance your visitor will returns and wants to
see the 'next record' or something.

I think that really you just should bite the bullet and use the better
syntax on SELECT. You may have a little more programming work to do,
but it has little impact on performance as far as I can see.

PostgreSQL will optimise queries differently when they have LIMIT
clauses too.

Regards,
Andrew.
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