How to connect to PostgreSQL using Node.js

This article describes how to connect to a PostgreSQL database using Node.js.

Connecting to PostgreSQL using Node.js

The node-postgres package includes all of the functionality you need to access and work with PostgreSQL databases in Node.js. Before you can do this, however, you must install the node-postgres package on your account. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your account using SSH.
2. Type the following commands:

   cd ~
   npm install pg
   

Code sample

After you install the node-postgres package, you are ready to work with PostgreSQL databases and manipulate data in them. The following sample Node.js code demonstrates how to do this.

In your own code, replace dbname with the database name, username with the PostgreSQL database username, and password with the database user's password. Additionally, you should modify the SELECT query to match a table in your own database:

import pg from 'pg';

const { Client } = pg;
const client = new Client({
    host: 'localhost',
    database: 'dbname',
    user: 'username',
    password: 'password',
});

await client.connect();
 
const res = await client.query('SELECT fname, lname FROM employee');
console.log(res.rows[0]);
await client.end();

In this example, we first instantiate a Client object that specifies a connection to a PostgreSQL database.

After we call the connect() method on the client object, we can run raw SQL statements such as SELECT.

Finally, we call the end() method to close the client's connection to the database.

SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module

{
    "type": "module"
}

More Information

For more information about the node-postgres package, please visit https://node-postgres.com/.