Database

Working With Arrays

Postgres supports flexible array types. These arrays are also supported in the Supabase Dashboard and in the JavaScript API.

Create a table with an array column

Create a test table with a text array (an array of strings):

  1. Go to the Table editor page in the Dashboard.
  2. Click New Table and create a table with the name arraytest.
  3. Click Save.
  4. Click New Column and create a column with the name textarray, type text, and select Define as array.
  5. Click Save.

Insert a record with an array value

  1. Go to the Table editor page in the Dashboard.
  2. Select the arraytest table.
  3. Click Insert row and add ["Harry", "Larry", "Moe"].
  4. Click Save.

View the results

  1. Go to the Table editor page in the Dashboard.
  2. Select the arraytest table.

You should see:

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| id  | textarray               || --- | ----------------------- || 1   | ["Harry","Larry","Moe"] |

Query array data

Postgres uses 1-based indexing (e.g., textarray[1] is the first item in the array).

To select the first item from the array and get the total length of the array:

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SELECT textarray[1], array_length(textarray, 1) FROM arraytest;

returns:

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| textarray | array_length || --------- | ------------ || Harry     | 3            |

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