How to Use pgx for PostgreSQL in Go (Native Driver)

Use pgx.Connect with a connection string to establish a native PostgreSQL connection in Go. The native driver (pgx) is the default and recommended approach for v5.

package main

import (
	"context"
	"log"

	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5"
)

func main() {
	conn, err := pgx.Connect(context.Background(), "host=localhost port=5432 user=postgres password=secret dbname=pgx_test")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("failed to connect: %v", err)
	}
	defer conn.Close(context.Background())

	var result string
	err = conn.QueryRow(context.Background(), "SELECT $1::text", "hello").Scan(&result)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("query failed: %v", err)
	}
	log.Println(result)
}

Install the driver first: go get github.com/jackc/pgx/v5.

Use pgx for PostgreSQL in Go to connect your application with the official, high-performance driver. Think of it as plugging your Go code directly into the database engine to send and receive data instantly. You use it whenever you need to store or retrieve information in a PostgreSQL database from a Go program.