1. What is PostgreSQL? Object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) Based on POSTGRES at Berkeley Computer Science Department. Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Army Research Office (ARO), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and ESL, Inc. Implementation of POSTGRES began in 1986. It used a query language based on QUEL, called POST-QUEL

2. PostgreSQL MySQL Aimed to be a fully- featured database Understands a good subset of SQL92/99 dialects Rules, triggers, server-side functions can be written in C, PgSQL, Python, Perl and TCL Aimed first to be a fast database Uses SQL92 as its foundation Has simple mechanism for server-side libraries with C function and rudimentary support for triggers

3. PostgreSQL MySQL Supports subqueries, stored procedures, subqueries, cursors or views Supports referential integrity, has transactions and rollbacks, foreign keys ON DELETE CASCADE and ON UPDATE CASCADE Does not support subqueries, stored procedures, subqueries, cursors or views Has basic provisions for referential integrity and transactions/rollbacks

4. PostgreSQL MySQL Doesn't have binary distribution for all the support platforms Slower on low-end but has some options for improving Works better on Windows Fast on both simple and complex SELECTs

5. Roles and Databases

6. #!/bin/bash for student in $@ do echo "CREATE ROLE $student WITH LOGIN;" | psql echo "CREATE DATABASE $student with OWNER $student;" | psql done

7. Creation Alternatives createdb psql --command //can't mix of psql and sql psql --file psql < filename

8. Other Command Line Options --hostname --username --password //force password prompt psql database username //default

9. Environment Variables PGDATABASE PGHOST PGPORT PGUSER

10. Useful Commands \connect \d [ pattern ] //list table, view, index, or sequence \dn [ pattern ] //list schemas \du [ pattern ] //list all roles \i filename //excute from file \l //list databases

11. Useful Commands \o [ {filename | |command} ] //Saves future query results to the file filename, standard output or pipes result to the Unix command \s [ filename ] //Saves the history to file or to standard output \set [ name [ value [... ] ] ] //Defines a variable \! [ command ] //Executes command on a Unix shell \? //Help the “+”

12. Sources http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1 psql man page Google "Postgres versus MySQL"