PGSQL Phriday #005 Recap

Thank you everyone who contributed to PgSQL Phriday #005! This month's topic: "Is your data relational?" If I missed any contributions, or if new ones are published, let me know and I'll try to update this post. These snippets are in a somewhat random order, loosely threaded together by sub-topic.

Contributing posts

Hetti D. wrote a great post starting by addressing the bonus question. I put that question last partly because I have struggled with a succinct definition myself. I also put it last because I hoped the initial 3 questions would lead us to answer the bonus question in our own ways. Hetti also discusses storing blobs and objects, and considerations between complexities and trade-offs with more targeted technology.

Pat Wright addressed the bonus question. Pat also provides examples of some good uses, and not so good uses, like the "junk drawer." I have also experienced the challenges presented with the 10+ year old databases, even the ones I built myself!

If I had to guess, I'd say the post from Andreas also hints at more 10+ year old databases. Databases are long lived systems after all. Many of my own JSONB usages are also "because it's just more convenient." Ads also points out that in many situations "in the database" truly is not the best solution.

Michael Christofides naturally approaches PgMustard's use with performance being top of mind. On one part, using JSON TEXT to store the user's input was another decision about simplicity. The decision was also made with an understanding of data growth patterns and resource considerations. Michael reinforces what Big Data is Dead author Jordan Tigani writes: "Most people don't have that much data." The vast majority of the databases I am involved with are under 25GB, with many that are barely creeping into the 100+ MB range!

Chris also came to Postgres lured by extensions as I was. He wrote: "The real advantage of PostgreSQL is that you can mix and match these diverse features in a single query." 💯 Chris also reinforces how important overall simplicity of the solution must be considered.

Last, but certainly not least, is Ryan Booz's post. I will need to re-read this one to really understand how he is parsing Wordle posts from Twitter... in Postgres! Reading this, I wonder about the data source and if Ryan is using a foreign data wrapper to interact with an API and store the results in Postgres? Maybe that's another post coming?

Okay, one more! I wrote Postgres is Relational Plus. After all, I picked this month's topic because it's a topic I wanted to write about.

I knew this was a big topic. I appreciate everyone else chiming in and filling out the conversation in so many great ways! I look forward to next month's PgSQL Phriday topic. Until next time...

🐘