Connect an app

For Go applications, most drivers provide database connectivity through the standard database/sql API. YugabyteDB supports the PGX Driver and the PQ Driver.

• YugabyteDB PGX Driver
• PGX Driver
• PQ Driver

The PGX driver is one of the most popular and actively maintained drivers for PostgreSQL. Use the driver to connect to YugabyteDB database to execute DMLs and DDLs using the PGX APIs. It also supports the standard database/sql package.

CRUD operations with PGX driver

Learn how to establish a connection to YugabyteDB database and begin basic CRUD operations using the steps in the Build an application page under the Quick start section.

The following sections break down the quick start example to demonstrate how to perform common tasks required for Go application development using the PGX driver.

Step 1: Import the driver package

Import the PGX driver package by adding the following import statement in your Go code.

import (
  "github.com/jackc/pgx/v4"
)

Step 2: Set up the database connection

Go applications can connect to the YugabyteDB database using the pgx.Connect() function. The pgx package includes all the common functions or structs required for working with YugabyteDB.

Use the pgx.Connect() method to create a connection object for the YugabyteDB database. This can be used to perform DDLs and DMLs against the database.

The PGX connection URL is in the following format:

postgresql://username:password@hostname:port/database

Code snippet for connecting to YugabyteDB:

url := fmt.Sprintf("postgres://%s:%s@%s:%d/%s",
                    user, password, host, port, dbname)
conn, err := pgx.Connect(context.Background(), url)

Use SSL

For a YugabyteDB Managed cluster, or a YugabyteDB cluster with SSL/TLS enabled, set the SSL-related environment variables as below at the client side. SSL/TLS is enabled by default for client-side authentication. Refer to OpenSSL for the default and supported modes.

$ export PGSSLMODE=verify-ca
$ export PGSSLROOTCERT=~/root.crt  # Here, the CA certificate file is downloaded as `root.crt` under home directory. Modify your path accordingly.

Step 3: Create tables

Execute an SQL statement like the DDL CREATE TABLE ... using the Exec() function on the conn instance.

The CREATE DDL statement:

CREATE TABLE employee (id int PRIMARY KEY, name varchar, age int, language varchar)

Code snippet:

var createStmt = 'CREATE TABLE employee (id int PRIMARY KEY,
                  name varchar, age int, language varchar)';
_, err = conn.Exec(context.Background(), createStmt)
if err != nil {
  fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Exec for create table failed: %v\n", err)
}

The conn.Exec() function also returns an error object which, if not nil, needs to be handled in your code.

Read more on designing Database schemas and tables.

Step 4: Read and write data

Insert data

To write data to YugabyteDB, execute the INSERT statement using the same conn.Exec() function.

The INSERT DML statement:

INSERT INTO employee(id, name, age, language) VALUES (1, 'John', 35, 'Go')

Code snippet:

var insertStmt string = "INSERT INTO employee(id, name, age, language)" +
                        " VALUES (1, 'John', 35, 'Go')";
_, err = conn.Exec(context.Background(), insertStmt)
if err != nil {
  fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Exec for create table failed: %v\n", err)
}

The pgx driver automatically prepares and caches statements by default, so you don't have to.

Query data

To query data from YugabyteDB tables, execute the SELECT statement using the function conn.Query(). Query results are returned in pgx.Rows which can be iterated using pgx.Rows.next() method. Then read the data using pgx.rows.Scan().

The SELECT DML statement:

SELECT * from employee;

Code snippet:

var name string
var age int
var language string

rows, err := conn.Query(context.Background(), "SELECT name, age, language FROM employee WHERE id = 1")
if err != nil {
  log.Fatal(err)
}
defer rows.Close()

fmt.Printf("Query for id=1 returned: ");
for rows.Next() {
  err := rows.Scan(&name, &age, &language)
  if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
  }
  fmt.Printf("Row[%s, %d, %s]\n", name, age, language)
}

err = rows.Err()
if err != nil {
  log.Fatal(err)
}

Next steps

• Learn how to build Go applications using GORM.
• Learn more about fundamentals of the PGX Driver.