Setting Postgresql work_mem from PHP

I discovered that one can set the work_mem from PHP after connecting to the database and before issuing heavy requests :

<?php
$conn = pg_connect("service=test");
// Set work_mem to 128MB
$res = pg_query(sprintf("SET work_mem = '%s'", pg_escape_string('128MB')));
// Run your query
$res = pg_query("SELECT * FROM your_heavy_request");
pg_close($conn);
?>

That allows you to set the work_mem depending on your requests without bothering the DBA 🙂