---
title: "Global Values in PL/Perl"
id: plperl-global
pg_version: "20devel"
---

<a id="plperl-global"></a>

## 43.4. Global Values in PL/Perl

You can use the global hash `%_SHARED` to store data, including code references, between function calls for the lifetime of the current session. 

Here is a simple example for shared data: 
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION set_var(name text, val text) RETURNS text AS $$
    if ($_SHARED{$_[0]} = $_[1]) {
        return 'ok';
    } else {
        return "cannot set shared variable $_[0] to $_[1]";
    }
$$ LANGUAGE plperl;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_var(name text) RETURNS text AS $$
    return $_SHARED{$_[0]};
$$ LANGUAGE plperl;

SELECT set_var('sample', 'Hello, PL/Perl!  How''s tricks?');
SELECT get_var('sample');
 

Here is a slightly more complicated example using a code reference: 
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION myfuncs() RETURNS void AS $$
    $_SHARED{myquote} = sub {
        my $arg = shift;
        $arg =~ s/(['\\])/\\$1/g;
        return "'$arg'";
    };
$$ LANGUAGE plperl;

SELECT myfuncs(); /* initializes the function */

/* Set up a function that uses the quote function */

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION use_quote(TEXT) RETURNS text AS $$
    my $text_to_quote = shift;
    my $qfunc = $_SHARED{myquote};
    return &$qfunc($text_to_quote);
$$ LANGUAGE plperl;
 (You could have replaced the above with the one-liner `return $_SHARED{myquote}->($_[0]);` at the expense of readability.) 

For security reasons, PL/Perl executes functions called by any one SQL role in a separate Perl interpreter for that role. This prevents accidental or malicious interference by one user with the behavior of another user's PL/Perl functions. Each such interpreter has its own value of the `%_SHARED` variable and other global state. Thus, two PL/Perl functions will share the same value of `%_SHARED` if and only if they are executed by the same SQL role. In an application wherein a single session executes code under multiple SQL roles (via `SECURITY DEFINER` functions, use of `SET ROLE`, etc.) you may need to take explicit steps to ensure that PL/Perl functions can share data via `%_SHARED`. To do that, make sure that functions that should communicate are owned by the same user, and mark them `SECURITY DEFINER`. You must of course take care that such functions can't be used to do anything unintended.