DBLINK_GET_PKEY(3)

💅 DBLINK_GET_PKEY 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to the dblink_get_pkey page from the PostgreSQL 16.15 docs — yes, that's the manual name, we're doing this, it's giving reference-section realness and honestly? iconic. let's go 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

dblink_get_pkey — returns the positions and field names of a relation's primary key fields 🌸

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

dblink_get_pkey(text relname) returns setof dblink_pkey_results

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so dblink_get_pkey hands you the tea about the primary key of a relation in the local database — like, the one you're literally connected to right now, no cap 💅

and this is sometimes useful for generating queries to be sent to remote databases. iykyk — you build the query here, you ship it over there 🔥

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• relname — the name of a local relation. for example foo or myschema.mytab. lowkey important: wrap it in double quotes if the name is mixed-case or contains special characters, like "FooBar" — because without quotes, the string gets folded to lower case. periodt 🍓

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👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

returns one row for each primary key field, or no rows if the relation has no primary key. that's it, that's the vibe check 💀

the result row type is defined as:

CREATE TYPE dblink_pkey_results AS (position int, colname text);

and about that position column — it simply runs from 1 to N; it's the number of the field within the primary key, not the number within the table's columns. please don't mix those up bestie i'm begging 🙈

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⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

CREATE TABLE foobar (
    f1 int,
    f2 int,
    f3 int,
    PRIMARY KEY (f1, f2, f3)
);
CREATE TABLE

SELECT * FROM dblink_get_pkey('foobar');
 position | colname
----------+---------
        1 | f1
        2 | f2
        3 | f3
(3 rows)

look at that gorgeous output. three fields, numbered 1, 2, 3. slay ✨

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fr fr though — if you remember nothing else, remember the position thing. it counts within the key, not within the table. that's the whole personality of this function ngl 💜

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! mwah 🎀 written up in the PostgreSQL 16.15 documentation, dated 2026, filed under DBLINK_GET_PKEY(3) — go forth and get those primary keys, you absolute main character 👑💖