Best Postgres Features tips Database Tips by Burleson Consulting

 

 

There are many projects currently utilizing, or at least supporting, PostgreSQL on the backend.

PostgreSQL Discussion

I asked Jonah H. Harris, Software Architect for EnterpriseDB and long time PostgreSQL community member, what he thought the most important feature of PostgreSQL is and what feature was most over looked. 

“In my opinion, PostgreSQL’s most important feature is the simplicity of its implementation.  PostgreSQL, unlike database systems from companies with multi-million dollar R&D budgets, is based on simple architectural concepts and well-established database theory.  Such theory relates to things such as sorting algorithms from Knuth, cost-based optimizer research, clock-sweep buffer management, MVTO-style MVCC, a Lehman & Yao b-tree implementation.  If you look back, PostgreSQL even supported multiple storage managers long before MySQL.”

He continued with:

“Of course, there are pros and cons with everything, but in the end it makes the implementation very simple and extremely portable.  Because the system was designed as a research database initially, it's fairly easy to change many facets of the system from the core to the periphery.”

In response to my question about the feature that is most overlooked, he answered with this: 

“Without a doubt, many people underestimate the extensibility PostgreSQL offers by assuming it's just another RDBMS.”

This is an excerpt from the book "EnterpriseDB: The Definitive Reference" by Rampant TechPress.