What is
PostgreSQL – Introduction
This is an
introductory article for the PostgreSQL database management system. In this we
will look into the features of PostgreSQL and why it stands out among other
relational database management systems.
Brief
History of PostgreSQL:
PostgreSQL
also known as Postgres, was developed by Michael Stonebraker of the University
of California, Berkley. It started as the Ingres Project and later
evolved into Postgresql as we know today. In the year 1982, Michael Stonebraker
started a post-Ingres project to address the problems with
contemporary database systems. He was awarded the Turing Award in the year 2014
for the projects and techniques pioneered in them. The POSTGRES project aimed
at adding fewest features like the ability to define various data types and to
fully describe relationships – something used widely, but maintained completely
by the end-user. POSTGRES used various ideas of Ingres, but had its unique
source code. The initial version of PostgreSQL was designed to run on UNIX-like
platforms. However, it was then evolved to be mobile so that it could run on
other platforms such as Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows.
What is
PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL
is one of the most advanced general-purpose object-relational database
management system and is open-source. Being an open-source software, its source
code is available under PostgreSQL license, a liberal open source license.
Anyone with the right skills is free to use, modify, and distribute PostgreSQL
in any form. As it is highly stable, very low effort is required to maintain
this DBMS.
Why
PostgreSQL is best for you?
The key
features that make PostgreSQL a reliable and user-friendly are listed below:
- User-defined types
- Table inheritance
- Sophisticated locking mechanism
- Foreign key referential
integrity
- Views, rules, subquery
- Nested transactions (savepoints)
- Multi-version concurrency
control (MVCC)
- Asynchronous replication
- Native Microsoft Windows Server
version
- Tablespaces
- Point-in-time recovery
Why
PostgreSQL is unique in itself?
Below is the
list of features that makes PostgreSQL stand-out among other DBMS:
- The multi-version concurrency
control (MVCC) feature was first implemented by PostgreSQL.
- Custom functions developed in
languages like C/C++, Python, Java, etc can be added to PostgreSQL.
- As PostgreSQL is designed to be
extensible, one can define their own data types, index types, functional
languages, etc.
- If one intends to remove any
part of the system, one can always develop a custom plugin to enhance it
to meet their specific requirements.
Large
Scale users of PostgreSQL
A number of
companies have built products and solutions using PostgreSQL. Few of those
companies are Apple, Fujitsu, Red Hat, Cisco, Juniper Network, etc.
Summer-time
is here and so is the time to skill-up! More than 5,000 learners have now
completed their journey from basics of DSA to advanced level development
programs such as Full-Stack, Backend Development, Data Science.
No comments:
Post a Comment