Book Image

Learning PostgreSQL 11 - Third Edition

By : Salahaldin Juba, Andrey Volkov
Book Image

Learning PostgreSQL 11 - Third Edition

By: Salahaldin Juba, Andrey Volkov

Overview of this book

PostgreSQL is one of the most popular open source database management systems in the world, and it supports advanced features included in SQL standards. This book will familiarize you with the latest features in PostgreSQL 11, and get you up and running with building efficient PostgreSQL database solutions from scratch. Learning PostgreSQL, 11 begins by covering the concepts of relational databases and their core principles. You’ll explore the Data Definition Language (DDL) and commonly used DDL commands supported by ANSI SQL. You’ll also learn how to create tables, define integrity constraints, build indexes, and set up views and other schema objects. As you advance, you’ll come to understand Data Manipulation Language (DML) and server-side programming capabilities using PL/pgSQL, giving you a robust background to develop, tune, test, and troubleshoot your database application. The book will guide you in exploring NoSQL capabilities and connecting to your database to manipulate data objects. You’ll get to grips with using data warehousing in analytical solutions and reports, and scaling the database for high availability and performance. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained a thorough understanding of PostgreSQL 11 and developed the necessary skills to build efficient database solutions.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)

The system catalog

PostgreSQL describes all database objects using the meta information stored in database relations. These relations hold information about tables, views, functions, indexes, foreign-data wrappers (FDWs), triggers, constraints, rules, users, groups, and so on. This information is stored in the pg_catalog schema, and to make it more readable by humans, PostgreSQL also provides the information_schema schema, in which the meta information is wrapped and organized into views.

In the psql client, users can see exactly what is happening behind the scenes when a certain meta command is executed, such as \z, by enabling ECHO_HIDDEN. The ECHO_HIDDEN or -E switch allows users to study the system catalog tables of PostgreSQL. You need to run the following command:

postgres=# \set ECHO_HIDDEN
postgres=# \d
********* QUERY **********
SELECT n.nspname as "Schema",
c...