Cursors and PHP

[Steve Manes <smanes@magpie.com>]

I found very little information on the web about how to return a cursor 
from plpgsql to PHP using PEAR::DB.  Here's what I managed to tack 
together.  It works but I want to make sure I'm not overlooking the 
obvious or doing something boneheaded here, like setting myself up for a 
database crash under load.  Here's an example:

========================
PLPGSQL:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_user_data(REFCURSOR, INTEGER)
 RETURNS REFCURSOR AS '

DECLARE
    v_cursor    ALIAS FOR $1;
    v_user_id   ALIAS FOR $2;

BEGIN

    OPEN v_cursor FOR
      SELECT *
      FROM users
      WHERE user_id = v_user_id;

    RETURN v_cursor;

END;

' LANGUAGE 'plpgsql';

==========================
PHP:

    $cursor = 'my_user';

    $query = "SELECT get_user_data('$cursor', $user_id);FETCH ALL IN 
$cursor;";

    $res =& $dbh->query($query);

    if (DB::isError($res)) {
 	... process the error
    }

    $row = $res->fetchRow(DB_FETCHMODE_ASSOC);

    $dbh->query("CLOSE $cursor;");

    $res->free();

    return $row;
============================

Question #1: Is this the way to do it?

Question #2: I'm using a persistent database connection.  To avoid 
leaving an open cursor laying around I make another call to close the 
cursor after the result set is fetched.  Do I need to do this or will 
the cursor be closed implicitly by Apache/PHP after the page is delivered?



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