PostgreSQL Query Optimization: The Ultimate Guide to Building Efficient Queries. Henrietta Dombrovskaya, Boris

Write optimized queries. This book helps you write queries that perform fast and deliver results on time. You will learn that query optimization is not a dark art practiced by a small, secretive cabal of sorcerers. Any motivated professional can learn to write efficient queries from the get-go and capably optimize existing queries. You will learn to look at the process of writing a query from the database engine’s point of view, and know how to think like the database optimizer.

The book begins with a discussion of what a performant system is and progresses to measuring performance and setting performance goals. It introduces different classes of queries and optimization techniques suitable to each, such as the use of indexes and specific join algorithms. You will learn to read and understand query execution plans along with techniques for influencing those plans for better performance. The book also covers advanced topics such as the use of functions and procedures, dynamic SQL, and generated queries. All of these techniques are then used together to produce performant applications, avoiding the pitfalls of object-relational mappers.

 You will:

Identify optimization goals in OLTP and OLAP systems

Read and understand PostgreSQL execution plans

Distinguish between short queries and long queries

Choose the right optimization technique for each query type

Identify indexes that will improve query performance

Optimize full table scans

Avoid the pitfalls of object-relational mapping systems

Optimize the entire application rather than just database queries

 About the Author

Henrietta Dombrovskaya is a database researcher and developer with over 35 years of academic and industrial experience. She holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Saint Petersburg, Russia. At present, she is Associate Director of Databases at Braviant Holdings, Chicago, Illinois. She is an active member of the PostgreSQL community, a frequent speaker at the PostgreSQL conference, and a local organizer of the Chicago PostgreSQL User Group. Her research interests are tightly coupled with practice and are focused on developing efficient interactions between applications and databases. She is a winner of the “Technologist of the Year” 2019 award of the Illinois Technology Association.

Boris Novikov is currently a professor in the Department of Informatics at National Research University Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He graduated from Leningrad University’s School of Mathematics and Mechanics. He has worked for Saint Petersburg University for a number of years and moved to his current position in January, 2019. His research interests are in a broad area of information management and include several aspects of design, development, and tuning of databases, applications, and database management systems.