PostgreSQL is an open-source object-relational database management system that allows users to manage data regardless of the database size. In PostgreSQL, you can define your own data types, build custom functions, and even write code in another programming language (e.g. Python) without recompiling the database.
Features
Find below some of the main features of PostgreSQL:
- High performance and extensibility: Known for its high performance, PostgreSQL allows for extensive customisation and adding new capabilities through extensions.
- Data integrity and reliability: Ensures data integrity and reliability, with disaster recovery mechanisms in place.
- Complex queries and data types: Supports complex queries and a wide variety of data types.
- Text search: Built-in support for full-text search.
- Cross-platform compatibility: Runs on all major operating systems and is ACID-compliant.
- GUI tools: Offers multiple graphical user interface tools such as pgAdmin and DBeaver for easy database management.
- PostGIS extension: Adds support for geographic objects, allowing PostgreSQL to be used as a spatial database for geographic information systems (GIS).
Use cases
Find below some examples of possible use cases:
- Exploratory data analysis: Perform exploratory data analysis using SQL.
- Data backup and recovery: Store and recover data backups reliably.
- Direct data analytics: Conduct direct analytics on data stored within the PostgreSQL database.
- Geospatial data management: Manage and analyse geospatial data with the PostGIS extension.
Resources
Find below some useful links providing more information on PostgreSQL: