Refinement Code Review

With the right environment, I can look a bit of code written six months ago, see some problems with how it's written, and quickly fix them. This may be because this code was flawed when it was written, or that changes in the code base since led to the code no longer being quite right. Whichever the cause, the important thing is to fix problems as soon as they start getting in our way. As soon as I have an understanding about the code that wasn't immediately apparent from reading it, I have the responsibility to (as Ward Cunningham so wonderfully said) take that understanding out of my head and put it into the code. That way the next reader won't have to work so hard.

After all, many problems that code reviews seek to remedy are problems that only become problems when the code is read in the future.

MONITORING REPLICATION: PG_STAT_REPLICATION

PostgreSQL replication (synchronous and asynchronous replication) is one of the most widespread features in the database community. Nowadays, people are building high-availability clusters or use replication to create read-only replicas to spread out the workload. What is important to note here is that if you are using replication, you must make sure that your clusters are properly monitored.

The purpose of this post is to explain some of the fundamentals, to make sure that your PostgreSQL clusters stay healthy.

POSTGRESQL: WHAT IS A CHECKPOINT?

Check some information about checkpoints, mix and max wal size, how they operate toghether and what they play on our day-to-day database workload.

Checkpoints are a core concept in PostgreSQL. However, many people don’t know what they actually are, nor do they understand how to tune checkpoints to reach maximum efficiency. This post will explain both checkpoints and checkpoint tuning, and will hopefully shed some light on these vital database internals.

Boos your user defined functions in PostgreSQL

Using the RDBMS only to store data is restricting the full potential of the database systems, which were designed for server-side processing and provide other options besides being a data container. Some of these options are stored procedures and functions that allow the user to write server-side code, using the principle of bringing computation to data, avoiding large datasets round trips and taking advantage of server resources. PostgreSQL allows programming inside the database since the beginning, with User Defined Functions (UDFs). These functions can be written in several languages like SQL, PL/pgsql, PL/Python, PL/Perl, and others. But the most common are the first two mentioned: SQL and PL/pgsql. However, there may be “anti-patterns” in your code within functions and they can affect performance. This blog will show the reader some simple tips, examples and explanations about increasing performance in server-side processing with User Defined Functions in PostgreSQL. It is also important to clarify that the intention of this post isn’t to discuss whether Business Logic should be placed, but only how you can take advantage of the resources of the database server.

The career-changing art of reading the docs

Don’t wait for knowledge to find you through years of inefficient trial and error. Go get it. And the most convenient, comprehensive place to grab it was there in front of you all along.

Read the docs.