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MySQL versus PostgreSQL: Adding a 'Last Modified Time' Column to a Table
This is the second post here detailing my ongoing adventures with PostgreSQL. This time I had a requirement to add a "timestamp" column to a table. The point of this being to allow us to track the "last modified" time of a row, without requiring that the application code manage the timestamp itself.
There's a lot of reasons why you might wish to do this. In this case it was to simplify syncing the data into a data warehouse. More specifically, to allow the DBA to easily identify rows which have changed since the last import.
Having done this a couple of times in MySQL, I assumed that the process would be straightforward. I should know better by now!
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MySQL versus PostgreSQL: Adding an Auto-Increment Column to a Table
The bulk of my database experience (almost eight years now) has been with the popular open-source MySQL database management system. MySQL has progressed significantly over the years, and has grown into a remarkable product. It finally has all the must-have features such as views, stored procs and referential integrity, coupled with the blistering performance for which MySQL has always been known. In short, it rocks.
But I digress. I've recently been having to get to grips with PostgreSQL (an old version of course - 7.1 or so - just to make life really interesting). It's largely intuitive, but there are quirks around most corners. This is my favourite so far: I recently needed to add an auto-incrementing integer "id" column to a table.
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Are Relational Databases Obsolete?
I found this hilarious.
Michael Stonebraker, co-creator of the Ingres and Postgres database management systems, recently made a blog posting suggesting that column-oriented database engines (example: Vertica) might someday triumph over the traditional row-oriented engines (example: every other database engine you know) in some situations, perhaps most notably the data-warehousing field. It's an interesting post, and well worth reading.
Somebody else thought so. Computer World reported the story under the title:
Relational database pioneer says technology is obsolete.
Slightly sensationalist, but whatever. And so naturally the story turned up on Slashdot as:
Are Relational Databases Obsolete?
Did anybody read TFA? I doubt it.
The real shame is that, I suspect this is how most 'real' journalism happens too.