Chapter 48. PL/Perl — Perl Procedural Language

Table of Contents

48.1. PL/Perl Functions and Arguments
48.2. Data Values in PL/Perl
48.3. Built-in Functions
48.3.1. Database Access from PL/Perl
48.3.2. Utility Functions in PL/Perl
48.4. Global Values in PL/Perl
48.5. Trusted and Untrusted PL/Perl
48.6. PL/Perl Triggers
48.7. PL/Perl Event Triggers
48.8. PL/Perl Under the Hood
48.8.1. Configuration
48.8.2. Limitations and Missing Features

PL/Perl is a loadable procedural language that enables you to write Postgres Pro functions and procedures in the Perl programming language.

The main advantage to using PL/Perl is that this allows use, within stored functions and procedures, 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. Users of binary packages might find PL/Perl in a separate subpackage.