• • 27 July 2023
  • PostgreSQL, SQL, Performance

  When Good Correlation is Not Enough

  Choosing to use a block range index (BRIN) to query a field with high correlation is a no-brainer for the optimizer. However, under some easily reproducible circumstances, a BRIN index can result in significantly slower execution even when the indexed field has very high correlation. In this article I describe how using a BRIN index in presumably "ideal circumstances" can result in degraded performance, and suggest a recent new feature of PostgreSQL as a remedy.

• • 06 October 2022
  • SQL, PostgreSQL

  Future Proofing SQL with Carefully Placed Errors

  There are many best practices for maintaining backward and forward compatibility in application code, but it's not very commonly mentioned in relation to SQL. SQL is used to produce critical business information for applications and decision-making, so there's no reason it shouldn't benefit from similar practices. In this article, I present a simple way to future-proof SQL.

• • 09 June 2022
  • Django, ORM

  Handling Concurrency Without Locks

  Concurrency is not very intuitive - you need to train your brain to consider what happens when multiple processes execute a certain code block at the same time. In this article I present common concurrency challenges and how to overcome them with minimal locking.

• • 31 December 2021
  • Meta

  2021 Year in Review

  What I've been up to in 2021...

• • 08 November 2021
  • PostgreSQL

  Lesser Known PostgreSQL Features

  A list of useful features you already have, but may not know about! In this article I share lesser known features of PostgreSQL.

• • 07 June 2021
  • Django, ORM

  One Database Transaction Too Many

  A story about how I ended up sending hundreds of users messages saying they got paid when they didn't! In the process we've learned a valuable lesson about nested transactions and Django signals.

• • 26 April 2021
  • PostgreSQL, SQL

  Practical SQL for Data Analysis

  Pandas is by far the most popular tool for data analysis. It's packed with useful features, it's battle tested and widely accepted. However, pandas comes at a cost which is often overlooked. SQL databases has been around since the 1970s. They contain many features that most developers never heard of, and I want to bring some of them to light.

• • 03 March 2021
  • Django, Django Admin, ORM

  Exciting New Features in Django 3.2

  Django 3.2 is just around the corner and it's packed with new features. Django versions are usually not that exciting (it's a good thing!), but this time many features were added to the ORM, so I find it especially interesting!

• • 01 February 2021
  • PostgreSQL, Django, ORM

  The Unexpected Find That Freed 20GB of Unused Index Space

  In this article I describe the process we took to identify potential free space, and one surprising find that helped up clear up ~10GB of unused indexed values!

• • 11 January 2021
  • PostgreSQL, Performance, SQL

  Re-Introducing Hash Indexes in PostgreSQL

  There is a type of index you are probably not using, and may have never even heard of. It is wildly unpopular, and until a few PostgreSQL versions ago it was highly discouraged and borderline unusable, but under some circumstances it can out-perform even a B-Tree index.

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