SQL is a very easy to use language and it is pretty easy to make things work out of the box. In fact, from my point of view simplicity is one of the core advantages of SQL in general. But, what if you want to compare dozens of columns with each other? It is not […]

When doing trainings or consulting sessions I have the feeling that most people are not fully aware of PostgreSQL’s shutdown modes. However, knowing about this functionality is pretty important. Without this information sysadmins may cause unintended damage and issues. This can easily be avoided.

UPDATED 21 March 2023: Tracking database changes and tracing users has always been a vitally important part of PostgreSQL database security and application security. Especially when critical data are stored, it might be interesting to know who has changed which data when and how. Generic Changelog Triggers in PostgreSQL are the key to tracking changes […]

Basically the idea of a random generator is to generate random data – ideally a lot of random and non-deterministic data. However, sometimes it is necessary to be able to reproduce a random sequence of numbers. Why would anybody want to do that? Well, what if you are running a simulation model? Or what if […]

UPDATED August 2023: I was inspired by some previous posts with the idea of abusing PostgreSQL security barriers to cheat on the optimizer. I have constructed an example of how a security barrier can theoretically be used to speed up things under some very nasty circumstances.

Christmas is approaching fast so I thought I’d give PostgreSQL users some inspiration when it comes to buying their Christmas presents. I assume that I am not the only one who has constant troubles finding the right present for somebody. The trouble is that prices are usually strange numbers. Maybe EUR 49.95 or EUR 49.99. […]