Go Database Skill

Production database patterns with Go including SQL, ORMs, and data access layer design.

Overview

Best practices for database operations covering connection pooling, transactions, migrations, and query optimization.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
database	string	yes	-	Database: "postgres", "mysql", "sqlite"
orm	string	no	"sqlx"	ORM: "none", "sqlx", "gorm"
pool_size	int	no	25	Max open connections

Core Topics

Connection Setup

func NewDB(dsn string) (*sqlx.DB, error) {
    db, err := sqlx.Connect("postgres", dsn)
    if err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("connect: %w", err)
    }

    db.SetMaxOpenConns(25)
    db.SetMaxIdleConns(5)
    db.SetConnMaxLifetime(5 * time.Minute)
    db.SetConnMaxIdleTime(1 * time.Minute)

    if err := db.Ping(); err != nil {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("ping: %w", err)
    }

    return db, nil
}

Repository Pattern

type UserRepository struct {
    db *sqlx.DB
}

func (r *UserRepository) FindByID(ctx context.Context, id int64) (*User, error) {
    var user User
    err := r.db.GetContext(ctx, &user,
        `SELECT id, name, email, created_at FROM users WHERE id = $1`, id)
    if err != nil {
        if errors.Is(err, sql.ErrNoRows) {
            return nil, ErrUserNotFound
        }
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("find user %d: %w", id, err)
    }
    return &user, nil
}

func (r *UserRepository) Create(ctx context.Context, user *User) error {
    query := `INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ($1, $2) RETURNING id, created_at`
    return r.db.QueryRowxContext(ctx, query, user.Name, user.Email).
        Scan(&user.ID, &user.CreatedAt)
}

Transactions

func (r *OrderRepository) CreateOrder(ctx context.Context, order *Order, items []OrderItem) error {
    tx, err := r.db.BeginTxx(ctx, nil)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("begin: %w", err)
    }
    defer tx.Rollback()

    // Insert order
    err = tx.QueryRowxContext(ctx,
        `INSERT INTO orders (user_id, total) VALUES ($1, $2) RETURNING id`,
        order.UserID, order.Total).Scan(&order.ID)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("insert order: %w", err)
    }

    // Insert items
    stmt, err := tx.PreparexContext(ctx,
        `INSERT INTO order_items (order_id, product_id, quantity, price) VALUES ($1, $2, $3, $4)`)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("prepare: %w", err)
    }
    defer stmt.Close()

    for _, item := range items {
        if _, err := stmt.ExecContext(ctx, order.ID, item.ProductID, item.Quantity, item.Price); err != nil {
            return fmt.Errorf("insert item: %w", err)
        }
    }

    return tx.Commit()
}

Migrations (goose)

-- +goose Up
CREATE TABLE users (
    id BIGSERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    email VARCHAR(255) UNIQUE NOT NULL,
    created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

CREATE INDEX idx_users_email ON users(email);

-- +goose Down
DROP TABLE users;

Retry Logic

func (r *Repository) withRetry(ctx context.Context, fn func() error) error {
    backoff := []time.Duration{100*time.Millisecond, 500*time.Millisecond, 2*time.Second}

    for i := 0; i <= len(backoff); i++ {
        err := fn()
        if err == nil {
            return nil
        }

        // Only retry on transient errors
        if !isRetryable(err) {
            return err
        }

        if i < len(backoff) {
            select {
            case <-ctx.Done():
                return ctx.Err()
            case <-time.After(backoff[i]):
            }
        }
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("max retries exceeded")
}

func isRetryable(err error) bool {
    var pgErr *pgconn.PgError
    if errors.As(err, &pgErr) {
        return pgErr.Code == "40001" || pgErr.Code == "40P01" // serialization/deadlock
    }
    return false
}

Unit Test Template

func TestUserRepository_FindByID(t *testing.T) {
    db := setupTestDB(t)
    repo := &UserRepository{db: db}

    // Setup
    user := &User{Name: "Test", Email: "test@example.com"}
    err := repo.Create(context.Background(), user)
    require.NoError(t, err)

    // Test
    found, err := repo.FindByID(context.Background(), user.ID)
    require.NoError(t, err)
    assert.Equal(t, user.Name, found.Name)

    // Test not found
    _, err = repo.FindByID(context.Background(), 99999)
    assert.ErrorIs(t, err, ErrUserNotFound)
}

Troubleshooting

Failure Modes

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Connection refused	Pool exhausted	Increase pool, fix leaks
Slow queries	Missing index	Run EXPLAIN ANALYZE
Deadlock	Competing tx	Review lock ordering

Debug Commands

# Check active connections
SELECT * FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE datname = 'mydb';

# Analyze query
EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = 'test@example.com';

Usage

Skill("go-database")