Articles by Shiv Iyer

About Shiv Iyer

Open Source Database Systems Engineer with a deep understanding of Optimizer Internals, Performance Engineering, Scalability and Data SRE. Shiv currently is the Founder, Investor, Board Member and CEO of multiple Database Systems Infrastructure Operations companies in the Transaction Processing Computing and ColumnStores ecosystem. He is also a frequent speaker in open source software conferences globally.

How to tune PostgreSQL by changing Block Sizes?

In PostgreSQL, tuning block sizes can have a significant impact on performance, especially for workloads that involve large sequential scans or high I/O operations. By adjusting the block size, you can optimize data storage […]

Deadly default values in PostgreSQL

While default values in PostgreSQL can be convenient and provide initial values for columns, certain default values can have a detrimental impact on PostgreSQL performance. Here are some examples of potentially deadly default values and […]

Why should you not be using BIT or BOOLEAN Flags in MariaDB?

Using BIT or BOOLEAN flags in MariaDB can lead to performance and maintenance issues in certain scenarios. Here are some reasons why you should be cautious when using these data types: Instead of using BIT […]

Hints and Costs in PostgreSQL

Understanding Hints and Costs in PostgreSQL Query Optimization Firstly, hints and costs are two important concepts in PostgreSQL query optimization. They help improve query performance by giving the optimizer additional information about how to execute […]

Looking under the hood of query transformation (done by CBO) in PostgreSQL with a simple real-life example

Understanding Query Transformation in PostgreSQL CBO Query transformation plays a crucial role in the PostgreSQL Cost-Based Optimizer (CBO). It enables the optimizer to modify a user’s SQL query to generate a more efficient query plan. […]

How to find outliers using the Median Absolute Deviation in PostgreSQL?

In PostgreSQL, you can actively use the Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) to identify outliers in a dataset. Since MAD is a robust statistic, it measures variability more effectively than traditional metrics. Moreover, it remains less […]

How to identify strings that can be treated as numbers in PostgreSQL?

In PostgreSQL, you can apply the isnumeric function to identify strings that PostgreSQL can treat as numbers. The isnumeric function returns TRUE if all characters in the string are numeric, and FALSE otherwise. Here is an […]

How to determine if a string is alphanumeric in PostgreSQL?

How to Safely Increase PostgreSQL’s Table Column Limit Beyond 1664

If you’ve ever encountered the PostgreSQL column limit of 1,664 columns per table, you know it can be a real hurdle when designing wide tables. This limit is enforced by the internal MaxTupleAttributeNumber parameter. In […]

Prevent errors during object creation and removal using the IF [NOT] EXISTS DDL clause in PostgreSQL

The IF [NOT] EXISTS DDL clause is a useful feature in PostgreSQL that can help prevent errors during object creation and removal. This clause allows database administrators to specify whether or not to create or […]

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