An intern’s View of PostgreSQL

About Postgres (the What)

  • PostgreSQL  is a powerful open source RDBMS . It has gained a  strong confidence for reliability , data integrity and correctness . It is known as the  most advanced open source database system. It runs on all major operating systems like Linux, UNIX, and Windows.
  • PostgreSQL supports a number of data types like INTEGER, NUMERIC, BOOLEAN, CHAR, VARCHAR, DATE, INTERVAL, TIMESTAMP, etc.

Benefits of Postgres (the Why)

  • Legendary reliability and stability: Unlike many proprietary databases, it is extremely common for companies to report that PostgreSQL has never, ever crashed on them in several years of high activity operation. Not even once. It just works.
  • ACID Transactions: PostgreSQL supports ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transactions
  • Functions: SQL functions called ‘Stored Procedure’s can be created to define custom functionality. Also, it supports procedural programming languages similar to PL/SQL in Oracle, such as PL/pgSQL, PL/Python, PL/Perl, C/C++, and PL/R.
  • Open-source RDBMS: Only PostgreSQL provides enterprise-class performance and functions among current open-source DBMS with no end of development possibilities. Also, PostgreSQL users can directly participate in the community and post and share inconveniences and bugs.
  • A very large and active community of developers & DBAs
  • A set of extensions for features/functionality not natively supported.

History of PostgreSQL

The PostgreSQL  project started in 1986 under the direction of Professor Michael Stonebreaker at the University of California, Berkeley. The project was originally named POSTGRES. It aimed to add the fewest features needed to completely support multiple data types. In 1996, the project was renamed to PostgreSQL to illustrate its support for SQL.

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