PostgreSQL Use Cases: Why Data Engineers Love this Database
With over 35 years of active development, PostgreSQL has built a strong reputation for its performance, scalability, and extensibility. This free-to-use database has distinguished itself among the most widely used databases across various industries. However, if you are still pondering the question, “Why use PostgreSQL,” this blog has got you covered! Read ahead to learn about various PostgreSQL use cases and features.
What is PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL is a well-known open-source object-relational database system. Its origins date back to the prestigious POSTGRES project at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986.
PostgreSQL extends the Structured Query Language with numerous features, allowing you to store and process complex datasets. Known for its robust architecture and easy compatibility with major operating systems, this database enables you to build fault-tolerant testing environments and applications.
PostgreSQL has been ACID-compliant since 2001 and supports powerful add-ons like PostGIS for geospatial data. This, coupled with its rich feature set and widespread community support, has made the database extremely reliable and well-suited for organizations of all sizes.
According to a recent survey conducted by DB-Engines, PostgreSQL is the fourth most popular database in the industry. You can take a look at the graph that depicts the rise in popularity of this database over the years. In the next section, you will get a clear idea about this database’s capabilities and know why you should use PostgreSQL.
PostgreSQL Use Cases
By now, you have a fair understanding of the database. Take a look at some of the prominent PostgreSQL use cases to comprehend its application across industries better:
Compatibility with CMS
Several Content Management Systems (CMS), including Django CMS, TYPO3, and dotCMS, are fully compatible with PostgreSQL. By integrating this database with your CMS, you can take advantage of its extensive features, like support for native JSON and Full-Text Search (FTS).
With the JSON and JSONb data types supported by PostgreSQL, you can store an exact copy of the input text data. However, the JSONb type has the additional advantage of supporting indexing, which makes query processing functions significantly quicker.
You can leverage the Postgres Full-Text Search functionality to search documents or any text-based content by indexing specific words or phrases. Through this feature, your teams can query and analyze large volumes of text data speedily. You can further enhance your operations by using PostgreSQL’s additional functions and operators to manipulate textual data that has already been converted into a tsvector value.
Powering Web Applications
While building a web application, you require a robust database to organize and store data for your web stack. One of the most popular web stacks today is the LAPP framework, where you can use PostgreSQL to power your application. This database is known for its complex query support, data integrity, and scalability.
You can utilize SQLPage, a free and open-source tool, to build numerous web applications entirely with SQL. You can easily integrate this tool with any existing PostgreSQL database, enabling you to manage data in a single standard .sql file. Using PostgreSQL-powered apps, you can build business intelligence dashboards and interfaces to empower your teams with data-driven insights.
To support your web application’s data needs, incorporating a data integration platform can be highly beneficial. Airbyte is a well-known AI-powered data movement platform that allows you to create a data pipeline within minutes. With Airbyte, you can unify your data from multiple sources, such as CRM platforms and CSV files, and effortlessly load it into PostgreSQL using its no-code connectors. Additionally, the platform offers multiple sync modes. This lets you control how Airbyte reads data changes from the source and writes them into PostgreSQL.
If your requirements go beyond Postgres, Airbyte also supports replicating data from PostgreSQL into a data warehouse with advanced analytical features. Its PostgreSQL source connector can be configured without technical expertise. Furthermore, you can also enable Airbyte’s CDC feature to capture and replicate incremental data changes in your destination database. This helps you keep your datasets accurate and updated at all times.
Geospatial Data Analysis
PostgreSQL offers a PostGIS extension that allows you to efficiently process and query geospatial data for GIS mapping software and applications. This extension's capabilities extend beyond spatial data storage and indexing. You can use functions to perform geocoding and reverse geocoding.
Geocoding is the process of converting a location description, like an address, into latitude and longitude coordinates. With such functions, you can improve your product’s shipping and logistics operations. By enhancing routing efficiency and enabling faster deliveries, your teams can boost customer satisfaction rates and develop targeted marketing strategies.
You can utilize PostgreSQL’s geospatial capabilities with other applications and third-party platforms, such as Tableau, QGIS, MapServer, and more. Django, an open-source Python framework for web applications, has a contrib module, GeoDjango, which is fully compatible only with PostgreSQL.
Support for NoSQL Databases and Vector Embeddings
If your organization largely relies on NoSQL databases, you may wonder why use PostgreSQL. However, this relational database has advanced features that allow you to perform document-oriented data management in one system.
Along with support for JSON data types, PostgreSQL lets you create custom data types for a specific use case. This is an additional flexibility if the current data types do not match your requirements. You can also use the Hstore extension provided by this database to query semi-structured and unstructured data.
With vector stores gaining popularity, PostgreSQL offers an extension, pgvector. Using it, you can store and query vector embeddings in your existing database. You can process these embeddings to power machine learning models and AI and NLP applications.
To further enhance the processing of unstructured data, you can use Airbyte to build a data pipeline from PostgreSQL to a vector database. Airbyte offers a Python environment, PyAirbyte, where you can build an ETL pipeline. You can extract data from PostgreSQL and leverage various Python library functions to conduct data transformations. Then, using one of the supported destination connectors, you can move this dataset into a popular vector database for further processing.
Top Three Features of PostgreSQL
- Common Table Expressions (CTE): Using the WITH clause in PostgreSQL, you can create Common Table Expressions. These are temporary tables that you can create within a larger query. CTEs help you simplify complex queries by breaking them into smaller and manageable parts. This makes it easy for your teams to read and process the entire query.
- Constraints: Data types can limit the kinds of data you store in a table, but sometimes, they can be too general for certain situations. For instance, your product price column should only contain positive values, but the standards data type may not be able to enforce this. To address this, PostgreSQL allows you to define constraints on columns and tables, giving you more control over your data. If the data entered violates a constraint, an error is raised, helping you take corrective actions and ensure data reliability.
- Foreign Data Wrappers: A Foreign Data Wrapper (FDW) is a library offered by PostgreSQL that enables you to connect to external data sources and retrieve foreign data. Some FDWs are available as contrib modules, while others are third-party products. If the existing FWDs do not fulfill your requirements, you can even develop your own in PostgreSQL.
- Extensions: PostgreSQL provides you with a wide range of extensions that give extra functionalities to your existing database. These extensions are modules with their own functions, operators, and data types. You can read more about the top PostgreSQL extensions here.
Conclusion
This article has helped you answer the question, “Why use PostgreSQL?” PostgreSQL is a versatile database that has a wide range of practical applications in various business functions. Understanding its core features and use cases empowers you to harness its full potential and create efficient systems that drive growth and innovation.