PHP and PostgreSQL: Advanced Web Programming

8.10. Working with Arrays

Arrays are a core feature of PostgreSQL. Many people admire PostgreSQL because of this feature because it is a comfortable way to reduce the number of relations in your data structure as well as to store multiple values in just one cell.

8.10.1. One-Dimensional Arrays

To define a column as an array, brackets have to be added to the data type:

phpbook=# CREATE TABLE parent (name_mother text, name_children text[]);
CREATE

If you have a look at the data structure, you will see that the second column has been defined as an array:

phpbook=# \d parent
           Table "parent"
    Column     |  Type  | Modifiers
---------------+--------+-----------
 name_mother   | text   |
 name_children | text[] |

To insert a record into the table, you can use ...