Seven Databases in Seven Weeks, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is the hammer of the database world. It’s commonly understood, often readily available, and sturdy, and it solves a surprising number of problems if you swing hard enough. No one can hope to be an expert builder without understanding this most common of tools.

PostgreSQL (or just “Postgres”) is a relational database management system (or RDBMS for short). Relational databases are set-theory-based systems in which data is stored in two-dimensional tables consisting of data rows and strictly enforced column types. Despite the growing interest in newer database trends, the relational style remains the most popular and probably will for quite some time. Even in a book that focuses on non-relational “NoSQL” systems, ...