Chapter 44. PL/Perl - Perl Procedural Language

Table of Contents

44.1. PL/Perl Functions and Arguments
44.2. Data Values in PL/Perl
44.3. Built-in Functions
44.3.1. Database Access from PL/Perl
44.3.2. Utility Functions in PL/Perl
44.4. Global Values in PL/Perl
44.5. Trusted and Untrusted PL/Perl
44.6. PL/Perl Triggers
44.7. PL/Perl Event Triggers
44.8. PL/Perl Under the Hood
44.8.1. Configuration
44.8.2. Limitations and Missing Features

PL/Perl is a loadable procedural language that enables you to write PostgreSQL functions in the Perl programming language.

The main advantage to using PL/Perl is that this allows use, within stored functions, of the manyfold string munging operators and functions available for Perl. Parsing complex strings might be easier using Perl than it is with the string functions and control structures provided in PL/pgSQL.

To install PL/Perl in a particular database, use CREATE EXTENSION plperl.

Tip

If a language is installed into template1, all subsequently created databases will have the language installed automatically.

Note

Users of source packages must specially enable the build of PL/Perl during the installation process. (Refer to Chapter 16 for more information.) Users of binary packages might find PL/Perl in a separate subpackage.