Build a Simple CRUD Go App with CockroachDB and the Go pgx Driver

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Warning:
CockroachDB v22.1 is no longer supported as of November 24, 2023. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.

This tutorial shows you how build a simple CRUD Go application with CockroachDB and the Go pgx driver.

Step 1. Start CockroachDB

Choose your installation method

You can install a CockroachDB Serverless cluster using either the CockroachDB Cloud Console, a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) tool, or ccloud, a command-line interface (CLI) tool.

Create a free cluster

  1. If you haven't already, sign up for a CockroachDB Cloud account.
  2. Log in to your CockroachDB Cloud account.
  3. On the Clusters page, click Create Cluster.
  4. On the Create your cluster page, select Serverless.
  5. Click Create cluster.

    Your cluster will be created in a few seconds and the Create SQL user dialog will display.

Create a SQL user

The Create SQL user dialog allows you to create a new SQL user and password.

  1. Enter a username in the SQL user field or use the one provided by default.
  2. Click Generate & save password.
  3. Copy the generated password and save it in a secure location.
  4. Click Next.

    By default, all new SQL users are created with full privileges. For more information and to change the default settings, refer to Manage SQL users on a cluster.

Get the connection string

The Connect to cluster dialog shows information about how to connect to your cluster.

  1. Select General connection string from the Select option dropdown.
  2. Open the General connection string section, then copy the connection string provided and save it in a secure location.

    The sample application used in this tutorial uses system CA certificates for server certificate verification, so you can skip the Download CA Cert instructions.

    Note:

    The connection string is pre-populated with your username, password, cluster name, and other details. Your password, in particular, will be provided only once. Save it in a secure place (Cockroach Labs recommends a password manager) to connect to your cluster in the future. If you forget your password, you can reset it by going to the SQL Users page for the cluster, found at https://cockroachlabs.cloud/cluster/<CLUSTER ID>/users.

Follow these steps to create a CockroachDB Serverless cluster using the ccloud CLI tool.

Note:

The ccloud CLI tool is in Preview.

Install ccloud

Choose your OS:

You can install ccloud using either Homebrew or by downloading the binary.

Use Homebrew

  1. Install Homebrew.
  2. Install using the ccloud tap:

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    brew install cockroachdb/tap/ccloud
    

Download the binary

In a terminal, enter the following command to download and extract the ccloud binary and add it to your PATH:

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curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_darwin-amd64_0.6.12.tar.gz | tar -xJ && cp -i ccloud /usr/local/bin/

Use the ARM 64 binary if you have an M-series Mac:

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curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_darwin-arm64_0.6.12.tar.gz | tar -xJ && cp -i ccloud /usr/local/bin/

In a terminal, enter the following command to download and extract the ccloud binary and add it to your PATH:

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curl https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_linux-amd64_0.6.12.tar.gz | tar -xz && cp -i ccloud /usr/local/bin/

In a PowerShell window, enter the following command to download and extract the ccloud binary and add it to your PATH:

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$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"; [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12; $ProgressPreference = 'SilentlyContinue'; $null = New-Item -Type Directory -Force $env:appdata/ccloud; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://binaries.cockroachdb.com/ccloud/ccloud_windows-amd64_0.6.12.zip -OutFile ccloud.zip; Expand-Archive -Force -Path ccloud.zip; Copy-Item -Force ccloud/ccloud.exe -Destination $env:appdata/ccloud; $Env:PATH += ";$env:appdata/ccloud"; # We recommend adding ";$env:appdata/ccloud" to the Path variable for your system environment. See https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_environment_variables#saving-changes-to-environment-variables for more information.

Run ccloud quickstart to create a new cluster, create a SQL user, and retrieve the connection string.

The easiest way of getting started with CockroachDB Cloud is to use ccloud quickstart. The ccloud quickstart command guides you through logging in to CockroachDB Cloud, creating a new CockroachDB Serverless cluster, and connecting to the new cluster. Run ccloud quickstart and follow the instructions:

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ccloud quickstart

The ccloud quickstart command will open a browser window to log you in to CockroachDB Cloud. If you are new to CockroachDB Cloud, you can register using one of the single sign-on (SSO) options, or create a new account using an email address.

The ccloud quickstart command will prompt you for the cluster name, cloud provider, and cloud provider region, then ask if you want to connect to the cluster. Each prompt has default values that you can select, or change if you want a different option.

Select General connection string, then copy the connection string displayed and save it in a secure location. The connection string is the line starting postgresql://.

? How would you like to connect? General connection string
Retrieving cluster info: succeeded
 Downloading cluster cert to /Users/maxroach/.postgresql/root.crt: succeeded
postgresql://maxroach:ThisIsNotAGoodPassword@blue-dog-147.6wr.cockroachlabs.cloud:26257/defaultdb?sslmode=verify-full&sslrootcert=%2FUsers%2Fmaxroach%2F.postgresql%2Froot.crt

  1. If you haven't already, download the CockroachDB binary.
  2. Run the cockroach start-single-node command:

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    $ cockroach start-single-node --advertise-addr 'localhost' --insecure
    

    This starts an insecure, single-node cluster.

  3. Take note of the following connection information in the SQL shell welcome text:

    CockroachDB node starting at 2021-08-30 17:25:30.06524 +0000 UTC (took 4.3s)
    build:               CCL v21.1.6 @ 2021/07/20 15:33:43 (go1.15.11)
    webui:               http://localhost:8080
    sql:                 postgresql://root@localhost:26257?sslmode=disable
    

    You'll use the sql connection string to connect to the cluster later in this tutorial.

Warning:

The --insecure flag used in this tutorial is intended for non-production testing only. To run CockroachDB in production, use a secure cluster instead.

Step 2. Get the code

Clone the code's GitHub repo:

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$ git clone https://github.com/cockroachlabs/example-app-go-pgx/

The project has the following directory structure:

├── README.md
├── dbinit.sql
└── main.go

The dbinit.sql file initializes the database schema that the application uses:

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CREATE TABLE accounts (
    id UUID PRIMARY KEY,
    balance INT8
);

The main.go file contains the code for INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE SQL operations. The file also executes the main method of the program.

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package main

import (
    "context"
    "log"
    "os"

    "github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach-go/v2/crdb/crdbpgx"
    "github.com/google/uuid"
    "github.com/jackc/pgx/v4"
)

func insertRows(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx, accts [4]uuid.UUID) error {
    // Insert four rows into the "accounts" table.
    log.Println("Creating new rows...")
    if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx,
        "INSERT INTO accounts (id, balance) VALUES ($1, $2), ($3, $4), ($5, $6), ($7, $8)", accts[0], 250, accts[1], 100, accts[2], 500, accts[3], 300); err != nil {
        return err
    }
    return nil
}

func printBalances(conn *pgx.Conn) error {
    rows, err := conn.Query(context.Background(), "SELECT id, balance FROM accounts")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer rows.Close()
    for rows.Next() {
        var id uuid.UUID
        var balance int
        if err := rows.Scan(&id, &balance); err != nil {
            log.Fatal(err)
        }
        log.Printf("%s: %d\n", id, balance)
    }
    return nil
}

func transferFunds(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx, from uuid.UUID, to uuid.UUID, amount int) error {
    // Read the balance.
    var fromBalance int
    if err := tx.QueryRow(ctx,
        "SELECT balance FROM accounts WHERE id = $1", from).Scan(&fromBalance); err != nil {
        return err
    }

    if fromBalance < amount {
        log.Println("insufficient funds")
    }

    // Perform the transfer.
    log.Printf("Transferring funds from account with ID %s to account with ID %s...", from, to)
    if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx,
        "UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - $1 WHERE id = $2", amount, from); err != nil {
        return err
    }
    if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx,
        "UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance + $1 WHERE id = $2", amount, to); err != nil {
        return err
    }
    return nil
}

func deleteRows(ctx context.Context, tx pgx.Tx, one uuid.UUID, two uuid.UUID) error {
    // Delete two rows into the "accounts" table.
    log.Printf("Deleting rows with IDs %s and %s...", one, two)
    if _, err := tx.Exec(ctx,
        "DELETE FROM accounts WHERE id IN ($1, $2)", one, two); err != nil {
        return err
    }
    return nil
}

func main() {
    // Read in connection string
    config, err := pgx.ParseConfig(os.Getenv("DATABASE_URL"))
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    config.RuntimeParams["application_name"] = "$ docs_simplecrud_gopgx"
    conn, err := pgx.ConnectConfig(context.Background(), config)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    defer conn.Close(context.Background())

    // Insert initial rows
    var accounts [4]uuid.UUID
    for i := 0; i < len(accounts); i++ {
        accounts[i] = uuid.New()
    }

    err = crdbpgx.ExecuteTx(context.Background(), conn, pgx.TxOptions{}, func(tx pgx.Tx) error {
        return insertRows(context.Background(), tx, accounts)
    })
    if err == nil {
        log.Println("New rows created.")
    } else {
        log.Fatal("error: ", err)
    }

    // Print out the balances
    log.Println("Initial balances:")
    printBalances(conn)

    // Run a transfer
    err = crdbpgx.ExecuteTx(context.Background(), conn, pgx.TxOptions{}, func(tx pgx.Tx) error {
        return transferFunds(context.Background(), tx, accounts[2], accounts[1], 100)
    })
    if err == nil {
        log.Println("Transfer successful.")
    } else {
        log.Fatal("error: ", err)
    }

    // Print out the balances
    log.Println("Balances after transfer:")
    printBalances(conn)

    // Delete rows
    err = crdbpgx.ExecuteTx(context.Background(), conn, pgx.TxOptions{}, func(tx pgx.Tx) error {
        return deleteRows(context.Background(), tx, accounts[0], accounts[1])
    })
    if err == nil {
        log.Println("Rows deleted.")
    } else {
        log.Fatal("error: ", err)
    }

    // Print out the balances
    log.Println("Balances after deletion:")
    printBalances(conn)
}

Note:

CockroachDB may require the client to retry a transaction in the case of read/write contention. The CockroachDB Go client includes a generic retry function (ExecuteTx()) that runs inside a transaction and retries it as needed. The code sample shows how you can use this function to wrap SQL statements.

Step 3. Initialize the database

  1. Navigate to the example-app-go-pgx directory:

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    $ cd example-app-go-pgx
    
  2. Set the DATABASE_URL environment variable to the connection string for your cluster:

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    export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://root@localhost:26257?sslmode=disable"
    
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    export DATABASE_URL="{connection-string}"
    

    Where {connection-string} is the connection string you copied earlier.

  3. To initialize the example database, use the cockroach sql command to execute the SQL statements in the dbinit.sql file:

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    cat dbinit.sql | cockroach sql --url $DATABASE_URL
    

    The SQL statement in the initialization file should execute:

    CREATE TABLE
    
    Time: 102ms
    

Step 4. Run the code

  1. Initialize the module:

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    $ go mod init basic-sample && go mod tidy
    
  2. Run the code:

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    $ go run main.go
    

    The output should look similar to the following:

    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Creating new rows...
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 New rows created.
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Initial balances:
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 3a936990-a0c9-45bf-bc24-92e10d91dca9: 300
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 8d1849dd-9222-4b12-a4ff-94e583b544a8: 250
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 c6ae8917-d24e-4115-b719-f663dbfb9ffb: 500
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 d0ce1f5c-e468-4899-8590-2bb6076247f2: 100
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Transferring funds from account with ID c6ae8917-d24e-4115-b719-f663dbfb9ffb to account with ID d0ce1f5c-e468-4899-8590-2bb6076247f2...
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Transfer successful.
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Balances after transfer:
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 3a936990-a0c9-45bf-bc24-92e10d91dca9: 300
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 8d1849dd-9222-4b12-a4ff-94e583b544a8: 250
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 c6ae8917-d24e-4115-b719-f663dbfb9ffb: 400
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 d0ce1f5c-e468-4899-8590-2bb6076247f2: 200
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Deleting rows with IDs 8d1849dd-9222-4b12-a4ff-94e583b544a8 and d0ce1f5c-e468-4899-8590-2bb6076247f2...
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Rows deleted.
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 Balances after deletion:
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 3a936990-a0c9-45bf-bc24-92e10d91dca9: 300
    2021/07/20 14:48:02 c6ae8917-d24e-4115-b719-f663dbfb9ffb: 400
    

    As shown in the output, the code does the following:

    • Inserts some rows into the accounts table.
    • Reads values from the table.
    • Updates values in the table.
    • Deletes values from the table.

What's next?

Read more about using the Go pgx driver.

You might also be interested in the following pages:


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