PostgreSQL Essential Reference

Introduction

Databases are an essential staple of the technological world. In some sense, you could say that the most universal function of computers is to serve as a database system. The early punch card readers, which predate the modern computer, were originally used by the U.S. government and large businesses as a method to collect, aggregate, and report data. This general purpose formed the basis for the modern computer to be developed.

In the early days of the modern computer, each program was expected to be able to handle its own data storage and retrieval functions. This, of course, placed a significant burden on early programmers, who had to write extra code that had nothing to do with the true function of their application. Moreover, ...