PostgreSQL Tutorial

PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system. It has more than 15 years of active development phase and a proven architecture that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness.

This tutorial will give you a quick start with PostgreSQL and make you comfortable with PostgreSQL programming.

What is PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL (pronounced as post-gress-Q-L) is an open source relational database management system (DBMS) developed by a worldwide team of volunteers. PostgreSQL is not controlled by any corporation or other private entity and the source code is available free of charge.

A Brief History of PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL, originally called Postgres, was created at UCB by a computer science professor named Michael Stonebraker. Stonebraker started Postgres in 1986 as a follow-up project to its predecessor, Ingres, now owned by Computer Associates.

1. 1977-1985: A project called INGRES was developed.

• Proof-of-concept for relational databases
• Established the company Ingres in 1980
• Bought by Computer Associates in 1994

2. 1986-1994: POSTGRES

• Development of the concepts in INGRES with a focus on object orientation and the query language – Quel
• The code base of INGRES was not used as a basis for POSTGRES
• Commercialized as Illustra (bought by Informix, bought by IBM)

3. 1994-1995: Postgres95

• Support for SQL was added in 1994
• Released as Postgres95 in 1995
• Re-released as PostgreSQL 6.0 in 1996
• Establishment of the PostgreSQL Global Development Team