August 11, 2022

Libelle IT Glossary Part 13: What is PostgreSQL (Postgres)?

AuthorHans-Joachim Krüger

Object-relational database management systems (ORDBMS) are more important than ever in times of BigData and digitalization. A very well known ORDBMS is PostgreSQL. With a development history of over 30 years, the free software is available to everyone. The constant development is the reason why PostgreSQL is not only usable for UNIX-like platforms, as it was originally intended. Today, the software can be used platform-independently.

The database application is now a standard in most Linux distributions. But PostgreSQL is not only available for Linux, but also for Windows and macOS systems. Postgres is used worldwide and is used by numerous large companies and start-ups. (Source)

So what is PostgreSQL? – PostgreSQL is an advanced, enterprise-class relational database system that is available as open source software.

What are the use cases for PostgreSQL?

The use cases for PostgreSQL are extensive. For many enterprise developers, PostgreSQL is currently the preferred database management system because of its versatility and scalability.  

Common application areas are:

✅ PostgreSQL database within the LAPP stack (LAPP stands for Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL, and Python).

✅ Use as a robust backend database in the website and web application area.

✅ PostgreSQL is used as a primary database to support applications or products (Source)

What programming languages are supported by PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL is designed to be extensible. Users can define their own data types, index types, and functional languages, etc..

So PostgreSQL supports most of the common programming languages:

  • Python
  • Java
  • C#
  • C/C+
  • Ruby
  • JavaScript (Node.js)
  • Perl
  • Go
  • Tcl

What features are most appreciated by users?

PostgreSQL has many features that simplify the work with the database management system for users and also support them at the same time:

  • User-defined types
  • Table inheritance
  • Sophisticated locking mechanism
  • Referential integrity of foreign keys
  • Views, rules, subqueries
  • Nested transactions (savepoints)
  • Concurrency control in multiple versions (MVCC)
  • Asynchronous replication (Source)

In addition to the general features, there is great potential within the open source community. This community has already developed many practical and free tools for PostgreSQL over the last few years. One of the most important and most used tool is the "pgAdmin". This is a program developed for setting up and managing PostgreSQL databases.

The "pgAdmin" is a web-based GUI tool that is used to manage the PostgreSQL session. Among other things, the administration tool provides the administrator with the ability to view existing sessions of the accounts visible to him and to track queries made within the sessions. Besides this feature, the tool has other interesting aspects. (Source)

PostgreSQL in comparison with other database management systems

Immense cost savings as well as significantly more flexibility: More and more companies are saying goodbye to license-required database management systems such as Oracle, DB2, etc. and migrating to open databases such as PostgreSQL.

Other databases are confronted with these features and advantages:

  • Set operations on one or more tables
  • Interfaces to a variety of programming languages (C, C++, Java, Python, etc.)
  • Possible programming of client programs
  • Compatibility of many international character sets
  • Kerberos authentication
  • Platform independent open source software
  • Free license (costs)
  • High security through security features (Source)

Queries with high complexity (subselects, outerjoin etc.) In another post of the blog series about PostgreSQL, we will take a closer look at this situation and the reasons for a change.

PostgreSQL®? Our experts support you!

In our Libelle PostgreSQL Competence Center, knowledge and experience are bundled for you. So you can rely on our extensive know-how, which is necessary for the migration and the secure and smooth operation of PostgreSQL databases.

  • Migration to PostgreSQL
  • Business continuity (incl. backup & recovery)
  • Application development and customization
  • Finetuning and optimization

Our innovative solutions support you in the area of PostgreSQL - You can find all information here.

Would you like to read more about various IT topics? For example, what exactly does high availability and business continuity mean? Then feel free to visit our Libelle IT Glossary or follow us on LinkedIn.


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