ecpg: how select/insert n rows (array) in one query

Hello

I'm new postgres user (currenly converting db application with quite
large database from mysql to postgres, hopefully pg is not too slow but
I really need triggers and views).

Anyway could somebody please explain how multiple row select/insert
should be used in embedded sql (ecpg)

1) select - this is simple (well documented)   EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;   struct data_t {       char
md5[100][32];      int  size[100];   } data;   struct ind_t { short md5,size } ind;   EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
 
   EXEC SQL BEGIN TRANSACTION;   EXEC SQL DECLARE cur CURSOR FOR       select md5,size FROM filetable;   EXEC SQL OPEN
cur;  EXEC SQL WHENEVER NOT FOUND DO break;   while(1) {       EXEC SQL FETCH 1000 FROM cur INTO :data:ind;
for(n=0;n<sqlca.sqlerrd[2];++n){ /*do something*/   }   EXEC SQL CLOSE cur;   EXEC SQL COMMIT;
 
   This is fine, speed on my hardware about (magnitude) 10.000 rows/per
sec.   (mostly limited by disk i/o)
   Only question here is: why can't I declare that data struct like   struct data_t {       char md5[32];       int
size;  } data[100];   Is this possible and how to use it.
 
.
2) insert - Now this is my real problem   if I have understod docs correctly : use of insert like select in
about example is NOT possible   please somebody say that I'm wrong - small example would be nice to
see ;-)
   And yes I have tried to insert multiple rows in one transaction
block like   EXEC SQL BEGIN TRANSACTION       for(....) {           insert .....       }   EXEC SQL COMMIT
   but this is still way to slow at max 50-100 insert per sec. I
understand that inserting is slow operation   but 10.000/sec in select and 50/sec in insert - can't be THAT
slow??? (inserting 12-13M rows is a bit pain...;-)
   And yes, I really want to use c+embedded sql code to do inserting
(real app/table struct of course more complex)
   -jt-