# PL/Python — Python Procedural Language

The PL/Python procedural language allows PostgreSQL functions and procedures to be written in the Python language.

To install PL/Python in a particular database, use `CREATE EXTENSION plpython3u`.

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

PL/Python is only available as an untrusted language, meaning it does not offer any way of restricting what users can do in it and is therefore named `plpython3u`. A trusted variant `plpython` might become available in the future if a secure execution mechanism is developed in Python. The writer of a function in untrusted PL/Python must take care that the function cannot be used to do anything unwanted, since it will be able to do anything that could be done by a user logged in as the database administrator. Only superusers can create functions in untrusted languages such as `plpython3u`.

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

## PL/Python Functions

Functions in PL/Python are declared via the standard sql-createfunction syntax:

    CREATE FUNCTION funcname (argument-list)
      RETURNS return-type
    AS $$
      # PL/Python function body
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

The body of a function is simply a Python script. When the function is called, its arguments are passed as elements of the list `args`; named arguments are also passed as ordinary variables to the Python script. Use of named arguments is usually more readable. The result is returned from the Python code in the usual way, with `return` or `yield` (in case of a result-set statement). If you do not provide a return value, Python returns the default None. PL/Python translates Python's None into the SQL null value. In a procedure, the result from the Python code must be None (typically achieved by ending the procedure without a `return` statement or by using a `return` statement without argument); otherwise, an error will be raised.

For example, a function to return the greater of two integers can be defined as:

    CREATE FUNCTION pymax (a integer, b integer)
      RETURNS integer
    AS $$
      if a > b:
        return a
      return b
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

The Python code that is given as the body of the function definition is transformed into a Python function. For example, the above results in:

    def __plpython_procedure_pymax_23456():
      if a > b:
        return a
      return b

assuming that 23456 is the OID assigned to the function by PostgreSQL.

The arguments are set as global variables. Because of the scoping rules of Python, this has the subtle consequence that an argument variable cannot be reassigned inside the function to the value of an expression that involves the variable name itself, unless the variable is redeclared as global in the block. For example, the following won't work:

    CREATE FUNCTION pystrip(x text)
      RETURNS text
    AS $$
      x = x.strip()  # error
      return x
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

because assigning to `x` makes `x` a local variable for the entire block, and so the `x` on the right-hand side of the assignment refers to a not-yet-assigned local variable `x`, not the PL/Python function parameter. Using the `global` statement, this can be made to work:

    CREATE FUNCTION pystrip(x text)
      RETURNS text
    AS $$
      global x
      x = x.strip()  # ok now
      return x
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

But it is advisable not to rely on this implementation detail of PL/Python. It is better to treat the function parameters as read-only.

## Data Values

Generally speaking, the aim of PL/Python is to provide a natural mapping between the PostgreSQL and the Python worlds. This informs the data mapping rules described below.

### Data Type Mapping

When a PL/Python function is called, its arguments are converted from their PostgreSQL data type to a corresponding Python type:

- PostgreSQL `boolean` is converted to Python `bool`.

- PostgreSQL `smallint`, `int`, `bigint` and `oid` are converted to Python `int`.

- PostgreSQL `real` and `double` are converted to Python `float`.

- PostgreSQL `numeric` is converted to Python `Decimal`. This type is imported from the `cdecimal` package if that is available. Otherwise, `decimal.Decimal` from the standard library will be used. `cdecimal` is significantly faster than `decimal`. In Python 3.3 and up, however, `cdecimal` has been integrated into the standard library under the name `decimal`, so there is no longer any difference.

- PostgreSQL `bytea` is converted to Python `bytes`.

- All other data types, including the PostgreSQL character string types, are converted to a Python `str` (in Unicode like all Python strings).

- For nonscalar data types, see below.

When a PL/Python function returns, its return value is converted to the function's declared PostgreSQL return data type as follows:

- When the PostgreSQL return type is `boolean`, the return value will be evaluated for truth according to the Python rules. That is, 0 and empty string are false, but notably `'f'` is true.

- When the PostgreSQL return type is `bytea`, the return value will be converted to Python `bytes` using the respective Python built-ins, with the result being converted to `bytea`.

- For all other PostgreSQL return types, the return value is converted to a string using the Python built-in `str`, and the result is passed to the input function of the PostgreSQL data type. (If the Python value is a `float`, it is converted using the `repr` built-in instead of `str`, to avoid loss of precision.)

  Strings are automatically converted to the PostgreSQL server encoding when they are passed to PostgreSQL.

- For nonscalar data types, see below.

Note that logical mismatches between the declared PostgreSQL return type and the Python data type of the actual return object are not flagged; the value will be converted in any case.

### Null, None

If an SQL null value
is passed to a function, the argument value will appear as None in Python. For example, the function definition of `pymax` shown in plpython-funcs will return the wrong answer for null inputs. We could add `STRICT` to the function definition to make PostgreSQL do something more reasonable: if a null value is passed, the function will not be called at all, but will just return a null result automatically. Alternatively, we could check for null inputs in the function body:

    CREATE FUNCTION pymax (a integer, b integer)
      RETURNS integer
    AS $$
      if (a is None) or (b is None):
        return None
      if a > b:
        return a
      return b
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

As shown above, to return an SQL null value from a PL/Python function, return the value None. This can be done whether the function is strict or not.

### Arrays, Lists

SQL array values are passed into PL/Python as a Python list. To return an SQL array value out of a PL/Python function, return a Python list:

    CREATE FUNCTION return_arr()
      RETURNS int[]
    AS $$
    return [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

    SELECT return_arr();
     return_arr
    -------------
     {1,2,3,4,5}
    (1 row)

Multidimensional arrays are passed into PL/Python as nested Python lists. A 2-dimensional array is a list of lists, for example. When returning a multi-dimensional SQL array out of a PL/Python function, the inner lists at each level must all be of the same size. For example:

    CREATE FUNCTION test_type_conversion_array_int4(x int4[]) RETURNS int4[] AS $$
    plpy.info(x, type(x))
    return x
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

    SELECT * FROM test_type_conversion_array_int4(ARRAY[[1,2,3],[4,5,6]]);
    INFO:  ([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]], <type 'list'>)
     test_type_conversion_array_int4
    ---------------------------------
     {{1,2,3},{4,5,6}}
    (1 row)

Other Python sequences, like tuples, are also accepted for backwards-compatibility with PostgreSQL versions 9.6 and below, when multi-dimensional arrays were not supported. However, they are always treated as one-dimensional arrays, because they are ambiguous with composite types. For the same reason, when a composite type is used in a multi-dimensional array, it must be represented by a tuple, rather than a list.

Note that in Python, strings are sequences, which can have undesirable effects that might be familiar to Python programmers:

    CREATE FUNCTION return_str_arr()
      RETURNS varchar[]
    AS $$
    return "hello"
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

    SELECT return_str_arr();
     return_str_arr
    ----------------
     {h,e,l,l,o}
    (1 row)

### Composite Types

Composite-type arguments are passed to the function as Python mappings. The element names of the mapping are the attribute names of the composite type. If an attribute in the passed row has the null value, it has the value None in the mapping. Here is an example:

    CREATE TABLE employee (
      name text,
      salary integer,
      age integer
    );

    CREATE FUNCTION overpaid (e employee)
      RETURNS boolean
    AS $$
      if e["salary"] > 200000:
        return True
      if (e["age"] < 30) and (e["salary"] > 100000):
        return True
      return False
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

There are multiple ways to return row or composite types from a Python function. The following examples assume we have:

    CREATE TYPE named_value AS (
      name   text,
      value  integer
    );

A composite result can be returned as a:

Sequence type (a tuple or list, but not a set because it is not indexable)

- Returned sequence objects must have the same number of items as the composite result type has fields. The item with index 0 is assigned to the first field of the composite type, 1 to the second and so on. For example:

      CREATE FUNCTION make_pair (name text, value integer)
        RETURNS named_value
      AS $$
        return ( name, value )
        # or alternatively, as list: return [ name, value ]
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

  To return an SQL null for any column, insert None at the corresponding position.

  When an array of composite types is returned, it cannot be returned as a list, because it is ambiguous whether the Python list represents a composite type, or another array dimension.

Mapping (dictionary)

- The value for each result type column is retrieved from the mapping with the column name as key. Example:

      CREATE FUNCTION make_pair (name text, value integer)
        RETURNS named_value
      AS $$
        return { "name": name, "value": value }
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

  Any extra dictionary key/value pairs are ignored. Missing keys are treated as errors. To return an SQL null value for any column, insert None with the corresponding column name as the key.

Object (any object providing method `__getattr__`)

- This works the same as a mapping. Example:

      CREATE FUNCTION make_pair (name text, value integer)
        RETURNS named_value
      AS $$
        class named_value:
          def __init__ (self, n, v):
            self.name = n
            self.value = v
        return named_value(name, value)

        # or simply
        class nv: pass
        nv.name = name
        nv.value = value
        return nv
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

Functions with `OUT` parameters are also supported. For example:

    CREATE FUNCTION multiout_simple(OUT i integer, OUT j integer) AS $$
    return (1, 2)
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

    SELECT * FROM multiout_simple();

Output parameters of procedures are passed back the same way. For example:

    CREATE PROCEDURE python_triple(INOUT a integer, INOUT b integer) AS $$
    return (a * 3, b * 3)
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

    CALL python_triple(5, 10);

### Set-Returning Functions

A PL/Python function can also return sets of scalar or composite types. There are several ways to achieve this because the returned object is internally turned into an iterator. The following examples assume we have composite type:

    CREATE TYPE greeting AS (
      how text,
      who text
    );

A set result can be returned from a:

Sequence type (tuple, list, set)

-     CREATE FUNCTION greet (how text)
        RETURNS SETOF greeting
      AS $$
        # return tuple containing lists as composite types
        # all other combinations work also
        return ( [ how, "World" ], [ how, "PostgreSQL" ], [ how, "PL/Python" ] )
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

Iterator (any object providing __iter__ and __next__ methods)

-     CREATE FUNCTION greet (how text)
        RETURNS SETOF greeting
      AS $$
        class producer:
          def __init__ (self, how, who):
            self.how = how
            self.who = who
            self.ndx = -1

          def __iter__ (self):
            return self

          def __next__(self):
            self.ndx += 1
            if self.ndx == len(self.who):
              raise StopIteration
            return ( self.how, self.who[self.ndx] )

        return producer(how, [ "World", "PostgreSQL", "PL/Python" ])
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

Generator (`yield`)

-     CREATE FUNCTION greet (how text)
        RETURNS SETOF greeting
      AS $$
        for who in [ "World", "PostgreSQL", "PL/Python" ]:
          yield ( how, who )
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

Set-returning functions with `OUT` parameters (using `RETURNS SETOF record`) are also supported. For example:

    CREATE FUNCTION multiout_simple_setof(n integer, OUT integer, OUT integer) RETURNS SETOF record AS $$
    return [(1, 2)] * n
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

    SELECT * FROM multiout_simple_setof(3);

## Sharing Data

The global dictionary `SD` is available to store private data between repeated calls to the same function. The global dictionary `GD` is public data, that is available to all Python functions within a session; use with care.

Each function gets its own execution environment in the Python interpreter, so that global data and function arguments from `myfunc` are not available to `myfunc2`. The exception is the data in the `GD` dictionary, as mentioned above.

## Anonymous Code Blocks

PL/Python also supports anonymous code blocks called with the sql-do statement:

    DO $$
        # PL/Python code
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

An anonymous code block receives no arguments, and whatever value it might return is discarded. Otherwise it behaves just like a function.

## Trigger Functions

When a function is used as a trigger, the dictionary `TD` contains trigger-related values:

`TD["event"]`

- contains the event as a string: `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, `DELETE`, or `TRUNCATE`.

`TD["when"]`

- contains one of `BEFORE`, `AFTER`, or `INSTEAD OF`.

`TD["level"]`

- contains `ROW` or `STATEMENT`.

`TD["new"]`

`TD["old"]`

- For a row-level trigger, one or both of these fields contain the respective trigger rows, depending on the trigger event.

`TD["name"]`

- contains the trigger name.

`TD["table_name"]`

- contains the name of the table on which the trigger occurred.

`TD["table_schema"]`

- contains the schema of the table on which the trigger occurred.

`TD["relid"]`

- contains the OID of the table on which the trigger occurred.

`TD["args"]`

- If the `CREATE TRIGGER` command included arguments, they are available in `TD["args"][0]` to `TD["args"][`n`-1]`.

If `TD["when"]` is `BEFORE` or `INSTEAD OF` and `TD["level"]` is `ROW`, you can return `None` or `"OK"` from the Python function to indicate the row is unmodified, `"SKIP"` to abort the event, or if `TD["event"]` is `INSERT` or `UPDATE` you can return `"MODIFY"` to indicate you've modified the new row. Otherwise the return value is ignored.

## Database Access

The PL/Python language module automatically imports a Python module called `plpy`. The functions and constants in this module are available to you in the Python code as `plpy.`foo``.

### Database Access Functions

The `plpy` module provides several functions to execute database commands:

`plpy.`execute`(`query` [, `limit`])`

- Calling `plpy.execute` with a query string and an optional row limit argument causes that query to be run and the result to be returned in a result object.

  If `limit` is specified and is greater than zero, then `plpy.execute` retrieves at most `limit` rows, much as if the query included a `LIMIT` clause. Omitting `limit` or specifying it as zero results in no row limit.

  The result object emulates a list or dictionary object. The result object can be accessed by row number and column name. For example:

      rv = plpy.execute("SELECT * FROM my_table", 5)

  returns up to 5 rows from `my_table`. If `my_table` has a column `my_column`, it would be accessed as:

      foo = rv[i]["my_column"]

  The number of rows returned can be obtained using the built-in `len` function.

  The result object has these additional methods:

  ``nrows`()`

- Returns the number of rows processed by the command. Note that this is not necessarily the same as the number of rows returned. For example, an `UPDATE` command will set this value but won't return any rows (unless `RETURNING` is used).

``status`()`

- The `SPI_execute()` return value.

``colnames`()`

``coltypes`()`

``coltypmods`()`

- Return a list of column names, list of column type OIDs, and list of type-specific type modifiers for the columns, respectively.

  These methods raise an exception when called on a result object from a command that did not produce a result set, e.g., `UPDATE` without `RETURNING`, or `DROP TABLE`. But it is OK to use these methods on a result set containing zero rows.

``__str__`()`

- The standard `__str__` method is defined so that it is possible for example to debug query execution results using `plpy.debug(rv)`.

The result object can be modified.

Note that calling `plpy.execute` will cause the entire result set to be read into memory. Only use that function when you are sure that the result set will be relatively small. If you don't want to risk excessive memory usage when fetching large results, use `plpy.cursor` rather than `plpy.execute`.

`plpy.`prepare`(`query` [, `argtypes`])`

`plpy.`execute`(`plan` [, `arguments` [, `limit`]])`

- `plpy.prepare` prepares the execution plan for a query. It is called with a query string and a list of parameter types, if you have parameter references in the query. For example:

      plan = plpy.prepare("SELECT last_name FROM my_users WHERE first_name = $1", ["text"])

  `text` is the type of the variable you will be passing for `$1`. The second argument is optional if you don't want to pass any parameters to the query.

  After preparing a statement, you use a variant of the function `plpy.execute` to run it:

      rv = plpy.execute(plan, ["name"], 5)

  Pass the plan as the first argument (instead of the query string), and a list of values to substitute into the query as the second argument. The second argument is optional if the query does not expect any parameters. The third argument is the optional row limit as before.

  Alternatively, you can call the `execute` method on the plan object:

      rv = plan.execute(["name"], 5)

  Query parameters and result row fields are converted between PostgreSQL and Python data types as described in plpython-data.

  When you prepare a plan using the PL/Python module it is automatically saved. Read the SPI documentation (spi) for a description of what this means. In order to make effective use of this across function calls one needs to use one of the persistent storage dictionaries `SD` or `GD` (see plpython-sharing). For example:

      CREATE FUNCTION usesavedplan() RETURNS trigger AS $$
          if "plan" in SD:
              plan = SD["plan"]
          else:
              plan = plpy.prepare("SELECT 1")
              SD["plan"] = plan
          # rest of function
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

`plpy.`cursor`(`query`)`

`plpy.`cursor`(`plan` [, `arguments`])`

- The `plpy.cursor` function accepts the same arguments as `plpy.execute` (except for the row limit) and returns a cursor object, which allows you to process large result sets in smaller chunks. As with `plpy.execute`, either a query string or a plan object along with a list of arguments can be used, or the `cursor` function can be called as a method of the plan object.

  The cursor object provides a `fetch` method that accepts an integer parameter and returns a result object. Each time you call `fetch`, the returned object will contain the next batch of rows, never larger than the parameter value. Once all rows are exhausted, `fetch` starts returning an empty result object. Cursor objects also provide an iterator interface, yielding one row at a time until all rows are exhausted. Data fetched that way is not returned as result objects, but rather as dictionaries, each dictionary corresponding to a single result row.

  An example of two ways of processing data from a large table is:

      CREATE FUNCTION count_odd_iterator() RETURNS integer AS $$
      odd = 0
      for row in plpy.cursor("select num from largetable"):
          if row['num'] % 2:
               odd += 1
      return odd
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

      CREATE FUNCTION count_odd_fetch(batch_size integer) RETURNS integer AS $$
      odd = 0
      cursor = plpy.cursor("select num from largetable")
      while True:
          rows = cursor.fetch(batch_size)
          if not rows:
              break
          for row in rows:
              if row['num'] % 2:
                  odd += 1
      return odd
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

      CREATE FUNCTION count_odd_prepared() RETURNS integer AS $$
      odd = 0
      plan = plpy.prepare("select num from largetable where num % $1 <> 0", ["integer"])
      rows = list(plpy.cursor(plan, [2]))  # or: = list(plan.cursor([2]))

      return len(rows)
      $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

  Cursors are automatically disposed of. But if you want to explicitly release all resources held by a cursor, use the `close` method. Once closed, a cursor cannot be fetched from anymore.

  Do not confuse objects created by `plpy.cursor` with DB-API cursors as defined by the Python Database API specification. They don't have anything in common except for the name.

### Trapping Errors

Functions accessing the database might encounter errors, which will cause them to abort and raise an exception. Both `plpy.execute` and `plpy.prepare` can raise an instance of a subclass of `plpy.SPIError`, which by default will terminate the function. This error can be handled just like any other Python exception, by using the `try/except` construct. For example:

    CREATE FUNCTION try_adding_joe() RETURNS text AS $$
        try:
            plpy.execute("INSERT INTO users(username) VALUES ('joe')")
        except plpy.SPIError:
            return "something went wrong"
        else:
            return "Joe added"
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

The actual class of the exception being raised corresponds to the specific condition that caused the error. Refer to errcodes-table for a list of possible conditions. The module `plpy.spiexceptions` defines an exception class for each PostgreSQL condition, deriving their names from the condition name. For instance, `division_by_zero` becomes `DivisionByZero`, `unique_violation` becomes `UniqueViolation`, `fdw_error` becomes `FdwError`, and so on. Each of these exception classes inherits from `SPIError`. This separation makes it easier to handle specific errors, for instance:

    CREATE FUNCTION insert_fraction(numerator int, denominator int) RETURNS text AS $$
    from plpy import spiexceptions
    try:
        plan = plpy.prepare("INSERT INTO fractions (frac) VALUES ($1 / $2)", ["int", "int"])
        plpy.execute(plan, [numerator, denominator])
    except spiexceptions.DivisionByZero:
        return "denominator cannot equal zero"
    except spiexceptions.UniqueViolation:
        return "already have that fraction"
    except plpy.SPIError as e:
        return "other error, SQLSTATE %s" % e.sqlstate
    else:
        return "fraction inserted"
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

Note that because all exceptions from the `plpy.spiexceptions` module inherit from `SPIError`, an `except` clause handling it will catch any database access error.

As an alternative way of handling different error conditions, you can catch the `SPIError` exception and determine the specific error condition inside the `except` block by looking at the `sqlstate` attribute of the exception object. This attribute is a string value containing the SQLSTATE error code. This approach provides approximately the same functionality

## Explicit Subtransactions

Recovering from errors caused by database access as described in plpython-trapping can lead to an undesirable situation where some operations succeed before one of them fails, and after recovering from that error the data is left in an inconsistent state. PL/Python offers a solution to this problem in the form of explicit subtransactions.

### Subtransaction Context Managers

Consider a function that implements a transfer between two accounts:

    CREATE FUNCTION transfer_funds() RETURNS void AS $$
    try:
        plpy.execute("UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - 100 WHERE account_name = 'joe'")
        plpy.execute("UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance + 100 WHERE account_name = 'mary'")
    except plpy.SPIError as e:
        result = "error transferring funds: %s" % e.args
    else:
        result = "funds transferred correctly"
    plan = plpy.prepare("INSERT INTO operations (result) VALUES ($1)", ["text"])
    plpy.execute(plan, [result])
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

If the second `UPDATE` statement results in an exception being raised, this function will report the error, but the result of the first `UPDATE` will nevertheless be committed. In other words, the funds will be withdrawn from Joe's account, but will not be transferred to Mary's account.

To avoid such issues, you can wrap your `plpy.execute` calls in an explicit subtransaction. The `plpy` module provides a helper object to manage explicit subtransactions that gets created with the `plpy.subtransaction()` function. Objects created by this function implement the context manager interface. Using explicit subtransactions we can rewrite our function as:

    CREATE FUNCTION transfer_funds2() RETURNS void AS $$
    try:
        with plpy.subtransaction():
            plpy.execute("UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - 100 WHERE account_name = 'joe'")
            plpy.execute("UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance + 100 WHERE account_name = 'mary'")
    except plpy.SPIError as e:
        result = "error transferring funds: %s" % e.args
    else:
        result = "funds transferred correctly"
    plan = plpy.prepare("INSERT INTO operations (result) VALUES ($1)", ["text"])
    plpy.execute(plan, [result])
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

Note that the use of `try`/`except` is still required. Otherwise the exception would propagate to the top of the Python stack and would cause the whole function to abort with a PostgreSQL error, so that the `operations` table would not have any row inserted into it. The subtransaction context manager does not trap errors, it only assures that all database operations executed inside its scope will be atomically committed or rolled back. A rollback of the subtransaction block occurs on any kind of exception exit, not only ones caused by errors originating from database access. A regular Python exception raised inside an explicit subtransaction block would also cause the subtransaction to be rolled back.

## Transaction Management

In a procedure called from the top level or an anonymous code block (`DO` command) called from the top level it is possible to control transactions. To commit the current transaction, call `plpy.commit()`. To roll back the current transaction, call `plpy.rollback()`. (Note that it is not possible to run the SQL commands `COMMIT` or `ROLLBACK` via `plpy.execute` or similar. It has to be done using these functions.) After a transaction is ended, a new transaction is automatically started, so there is no separate function for that.

Here is an example:

    CREATE PROCEDURE transaction_test1()
    LANGUAGE plpython3u
    AS $$
    for i in range(0, 10):
        plpy.execute("INSERT INTO test1 (a) VALUES (%d)" % i)
        if i % 2 == 0:
            plpy.commit()
        else:
            plpy.rollback()
    $$;

    CALL transaction_test1();

Transactions cannot be ended when an explicit subtransaction is active.

## Utility Functions

The `plpy` module also provides the functions

- `plpy.debug(`msg, **kwargs`)`
- `plpy.log(`msg, **kwargs`)`
- `plpy.info(`msg, **kwargs`)`
- `plpy.notice(`msg, **kwargs`)`
- `plpy.warning(`msg, **kwargs`)`
- `plpy.error(`msg, **kwargs`)`
- `plpy.fatal(`msg, **kwargs`)`

`plpy.error` and `plpy.fatal` actually raise a Python exception which, if uncaught, propagates out to the calling query, causing the current transaction or subtransaction to be aborted. `raise plpy.Error(`msg`)` and `raise plpy.Fatal(`msg`)` are equivalent to calling `plpy.error(`msg`)` and `plpy.fatal(`msg`)`, respectively but the `raise` form does not allow passing keyword arguments. The other functions only generate messages of different priority levels. Whether messages of a particular priority are reported to the client, written to the server log, or both is controlled by the guc-log-min-messages and guc-client-min-messages configuration variables. See runtime-config for more information.

The `msg` argument is given as a positional argument. For backward compatibility, more than one positional argument can be given. In that case, the string representation of the tuple of positional arguments becomes the message reported to the client.

The following keyword-only arguments are accepted:

- `detail`
- `hint`
- `sqlstate`
- `schema_name`
- `table_name`
- `column_name`
- `datatype_name`
- `constraint_name`

The string representation of the objects passed as keyword-only arguments is used to enrich the messages reported to the client. For example:

    CREATE FUNCTION raise_custom_exception() RETURNS void AS $$
    plpy.error("custom exception message",
               detail="some info about exception",
               hint="hint for users")
    $$ LANGUAGE plpython3u;

    =# SELECT raise_custom_exception();
    ERROR:  plpy.Error: custom exception message
    DETAIL:  some info about exception
    HINT:  hint for users
    CONTEXT:  Traceback (most recent call last):
      PL/Python function "raise_custom_exception", line 4, in <module>
        hint="hint for users")
    PL/Python function "raise_custom_exception"

Another set of utility functions are `plpy.quote_literal(`string`)`, `plpy.quote_nullable(`string`)`, and `plpy.quote_ident(`string`)`. They are equivalent to the built-in quoting functions described in functions-string. They are useful when constructing ad-hoc queries. A PL/Python equivalent of dynamic SQL from plpgsql-quote-literal-example would be:

    plpy.execute("UPDATE tbl SET %s = %s WHERE key = %s" % (
        plpy.quote_ident(colname),
        plpy.quote_nullable(newvalue),
        plpy.quote_literal(keyvalue)))

## Python 2 vs. Python 3

PL/Python supports only Python 3. Past versions of PostgreSQL supported Python 2, using the `plpythonu` and `plpython2u` language names.

## Environment Variables

Some of the environment variables that are accepted by the Python interpreter can also be used to affect PL/Python behavior. They would need to be set in the environment of the main PostgreSQL server process, for example in a start script. The available environment variables depend on the version of Python; see the Python documentation for details. At the time of this writing, the following environment variables have an affect on PL/Python, assuming an adequate Python version:

- `PYTHONHOME`

- `PYTHONPATH`

- `PYTHONY2K`

- `PYTHONOPTIMIZE`

- `PYTHONDEBUG`

- `PYTHONVERBOSE`

- `PYTHONCASEOK`

- `PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE`

- `PYTHONIOENCODING`

- `PYTHONUSERBASE`

- `PYTHONHASHSEED`

(It appears to be a Python implementation detail beyond the control of PL/Python that some of the environment variables listed on the `python` man page are only effective in a command-line interpreter and not an embedded Python interpreter.)