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Home / PostgreSQL Tutorial / What is PostgreSQL?

What is PostgreSQL?

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn about PostgreSQL and features that make PostgreSQL stand out from other database management systems.

What is PostgreSQL

What is PostgreSQLLet’s start with a simple question: what is PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL is a general purpose and object-relational database management system, the most advanced open source database system. PostgreSQL was developed based on POSTGRES 4.2 at Berkeley Computer Science department, University of California.

PostgreSQL was designed to run on UNIX-like platforms. However, PostgreSQL was then also designed to be portable so that it could run on various platforms such as Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows.

PostgreSQL is free and open source software. Its source code is available under PostgreSQL license, a liberal open source license. You are free to use, modify and distribute PostgreSQL in any form.

PostgreSQL requires very minimum maintained efforts because of its stability.  Therefore, if you develop applications based on PostgreSQL, the total cost of ownership is low in comparison with other database management systems.

PostgreSQL features highlights

PostgreSQL has many advanced features that other enterprise database management systems offer, such as:

  • 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

The recent versions of PostgreSQL support the following features:

  • Native Microsoft Windows Server version
  • Tablespaces
  • Point-in-time recovery

And more new features are added in each new release.

What make PostgreSQL stand out

PostgreSQL is the first database management system that implements multi-version concurrency control (MVCC) feature, even before Oracle. The MMVC feature is known as snapshot isolation in Oracle.

PostgreSQL is a general-purpose object-relational database management system. It allows you to add custom functions developed using different programming languages such as C/C++, Java, etc.

PostgreSQL is designed to be extensible. In PostgreSQL, you can define your own data types, index types, functional languages, etc. If you don’t like any part of the system, you can always develop a custom plugin to enhance it to meet your requirements e.g., adding a new optimizer.

If you need any support, an active community is available to help. You can always find the answers from the PostgreSQL’s community for the issues that you may have when working with PostgreSQL. Many companies offer commercial support services in case you need one.

Who are using PostgreSQL

Many companies who have built products and solutions using PostgreSQL. Some featured companies are Apple, Fujitsu, Red Hat, Cisco, Juniper Network, etc. Check it out the PostgreSQL’s featured users section for the complete list of organizations who are using PostgreSQL.

PostgreSQL’s community pronounces PostgreSQL  as /ˈpoʊstɡrɛs ˌkjuː ˈɛl/. The original name of PostgreSQL is Postgres therefore, sometimes PostgreSQL is referred as Postgres.

We’re glad you choose the PostgreSQL to work with. Let’s download and install PostgreSQL to start learning PostgreSQL

Next Tutorial: Install PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL Quick Start

  • What is PostgreSQL?
  • Install PostgreSQL
  • Connect to Database
  • Download PostgreSQL Sample Database
  • Load Sample Database
  • Explore Server and Database Objects

PostgreSQL Fundamentals

  • PostgreSQL Select
  • PostgreSQL Order By
  • PostgreSQL Select Distinct
  • PostgreSQL Where
  • PostgreSQL LIMIT
  • PostgreSQL IN
  • PostgreSQL Between
  • PostgreSQL Like
  • PostgreSQL Inner Join
  • PostgreSQL Left Join
  • PostgreSQL Full Outer Join
  • PostgreSQL Cross Join
  • PostgreSQL Natural Join
  • PostgreSQL Group By
  • PostgreSQL Having
  • PostgreSQL Union
  • PostgreSQL Intersect
  • PostgreSQL Except
  • PostgreSQL Subquery
  • PostgreSQL Insert
  • PostgreSQL Update
  • PostgreSQL Delete

Managing Table Structure

  • PostgreSQL Data Types
  • PostgreSQL Create Table
  • PostgreSQL Alter Table
  • PostgreSQL Drop Table
  • PostgreSQL Truncate Table
  • PostgreSQL CHECK Constraint
  • PostgreSQL Not-Null Constraint
  • PostgreSQL Foreign Key
  • PostgreSQL Primary Key
  • PostgreSQL UNIQUE Constraint

PostgreSQL Views

  • Managing PostgreSQL Views
  • Creating Updatable Views
  • PostgreSQL Materialized Views
  • The WITH CHECK OPTION Views
  • PostgreSQL Recursive View

PostgreSQL Triggers

  • Introduction to Trigger
  • Creating A Trigger
  • Managing PostgreSQL Triggers

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