Using XTDB from C#

In C#, you can talk to a running XTDB node using the Npgsql PostgreSQL driver, taking advantage of XTDB’s PostgreSQL wire-compatibility.

Install

To install Npgsql, add it to your project:

dotnet add package Npgsql

Or via NuGet Package Manager:

Install-Package Npgsql

Connect

Once you’ve started your XTDB node, you can use the following code to connect to it:

using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Npgsql;

class XtdbExample
{
    static async Task Main()
    {
        var connectionString = "Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=xtdb;Username=xtdb;Password=xtdb;";

        var dataSourceBuilder = new NpgsqlDataSourceBuilder(connectionString);

        // Required for XTDB support
        dataSourceBuilder.ConfigureTypeLoading(sb => {
            sb.EnableTypeLoading(false);
            sb.EnableTableCompositesLoading(false);
        });

        var dataSource = dataSourceBuilder.Build();
        var connection = await dataSource.OpenConnectionAsync();

        await using (var insertCommand = connection.CreateCommand())
        {
            insertCommand.Parameters.Add(new NpgsqlParameter()).Value = "Alice";
            insertCommand.CommandText = "INSERT INTO users (_id, name) VALUES (1, ?)";
            await insertCommand.ExecuteNonQueryAsync();
        }

        await using (var queryCommand = connection.CreateCommand())
        {
            queryCommand.CommandText = "SELECT _id, name FROM users";
            await using var reader = await queryCommand.ExecuteReaderAsync();

            Console.WriteLine("Users:");
            while (await reader.ReadAsync())
            {
                var id = reader.GetInt32(0);
                var name = reader.GetString(1);
                Console.WriteLine($"  * {id}: {name}");
            }
        }

        Console.WriteLine("\n✓ XTDB connection successful");
    }
}

/* Output:

Users:
  * 1: Alice

✓ XTDB connection successful
*/

Examples

For more examples and tests, see the XTDB driver-examples repository, which contains comprehensive test suites demonstrating various features and use cases.