PostgreSQL has a rich system of supported data types. node-postgres does its best to support the most common data types out of the box and supplies an extensible type parser to allow for custom type serialization and parsing.
strings by default
node-postgres will convert a database type to a JavaScript string if it doesn’t have a registered type parser for the database type. Furthermore, you can send any type to the PostgreSQL server as a string and node-postgres will pass it through without modifying it in any way. To circumvent the type parsing completely do something like the following.
type parsing examples
uuid + json / jsonb
There is no data type in JavaScript for a uuid/guid so node-postgres converts a uuid to a string. JavaScript has great support for JSON and node-postgres converts json/jsonb objects directly into their JavaScript object via . Likewise sending an object to the PostgreSQL server via a query from node-postgres, node-postgres will call on your outbound value, automatically converting it to json for the server.
date / timestamp / timestamptz
node-postgres will convert instances of JavaScript date objects into the expected input value for your PostgreSQL server. Likewise, when reading a , , or column value back into JavaScript, node-postgres will parse the value into an instance of a JavaScript object.
psql output:
node-postgres converts and columns into the local time of the node process set at .
note: I generally use when storing dates; otherwise, inserting a time from a process in one timezone and reading it out in a process in another timezone can cause unexpected differences in the time.