PostgreSQL

Data Type Defaults

Need	Use	Avoid
Primary key	BIGINT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY	SERIAL, BIGSERIAL
Timestamps	TIMESTAMPTZ	TIMESTAMP (loses timezone)
Text	TEXT	VARCHAR(n) unless constraint needed
Money	NUMERIC(precision, scale)	MONEY, FLOAT
Boolean	BOOLEAN with NOT NULL DEFAULT	nullable booleans
JSON	JSONB	JSON (no indexing), text JSON
UUID	gen_random_uuid() (PG13+)	uuid-ossp extension
IP addresses	INET / CIDR	text
Ranges	TSTZRANGE, INT4RANGE, etc.	pair of columns

Schema Rules

• Every FK column gets an index (PG does NOT auto-create these)
• NOT NULL on every column unless NULL has business meaning
• CHECK constraints for domain rules at DB level
• EXCLUDE constraints for range overlaps: EXCLUDE USING gist (room WITH =, during WITH &&)
• Default created_at TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT now()
• Separate updated_at with trigger, never trust app layer alone
• Use BIGINT PKs — cheaper JOINs than UUID, better index locality

Index Strategy

Type	Use When
B-tree (default)	Equality, range, sorting, LIKE 'prefix%'
GIN	JSONB (@>, ?, ?&), arrays, full-text (tsvector)
GiST	Geometry, ranges, full-text (smaller but slower than GIN)
BRIN	Large tables with natural ordering (timestamps, serial IDs)

Index rules:

• Composite: most selective column first, max 3-4 columns
• Partial: WHERE status = 'active' — smaller, faster
• Covering: INCLUDE (col) — avoids heap lookup
• Expression: ON (lower(email)) — for function-based WHERE
• Drop unused indexes: SELECT * FROM pg_stat_user_indexes WHERE idx_scan = 0

JSONB Patterns

-- GIN index for containment queries
CREATE INDEX ON items USING gin (metadata);
SELECT * FROM items WHERE metadata @> '{"status": "active"}';

-- Expression index for specific key access
CREATE INDEX ON items ((metadata->>'category'));
SELECT * FROM items WHERE metadata->>'category' = 'electronics';

Prefer typed columns over JSONB for frequently queried, well-structured data. Use JSONB for truly dynamic/variable attributes.

Query Optimization

• Always EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, FORMAT TEXT) before optimizing
• Sequential scan on large table → add index or check WHERE for function wrapping
• High rows removed by filter → index doesn't match predicate
• CTE is an optimization fence before PG12; use MATERIALIZED/NOT MATERIALIZED hints (PG12+)
• Prefer EXISTS over IN for correlated subqueries
• Use LATERAL JOIN when subquery needs outer row reference
• Cursor pagination (WHERE id > $last ORDER BY id LIMIT $n) over OFFSET

Partitioning

Use when table exceeds ~100M rows or needs TTL purge:

• RANGE — time-series (by month/year), most common
• LIST — categorical (by region, tenant)
• HASH — even distribution when no natural key

Partition key must be in every unique/PK constraint. Create indexes on partitions, not parent.

Transactions & Locking

• Keep transactions short — long txns block vacuum and bloat tables
• SELECT ... FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED — job queue / work claiming pattern
• Advisory locks for application-level mutual exclusion: pg_advisory_xact_lock(key)
• Check blocked queries: SELECT * FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE wait_event_type = 'Lock'

Full-Text Search

-- Weighted tsvector column with trigger
ALTER TABLE articles ADD COLUMN search_vector tsvector
  GENERATED ALWAYS AS (
    setweight(to_tsvector('english', coalesce(title,'')), 'A') ||
    setweight(to_tsvector('english', coalesce(body,'')), 'B')
  ) STORED;
CREATE INDEX ON articles USING gin (search_vector);
SELECT * FROM articles WHERE search_vector @@ websearch_to_tsquery('english', $1);

Performance Tuning

Key postgresql.conf parameters (adjust for available RAM):

• shared_buffers = 25% of RAM
• effective_cache_size = 75% of RAM
• work_mem = RAM / max_connections / 4 (start 4-16MB)
• maintenance_work_mem = 256MB-1GB
• random_page_cost = 1.1 for SSD (default 4.0 is for HDD)

Connection Pooling

Always pool in production. Direct connections cost ~10MB each.

• PgBouncer in transaction mode for most workloads
• statement mode if no session-level features (prepared statements, temp tables, advisory locks)

Maintenance

• pg_stat_statements extension — find slow queries by total time, not just duration
• pg_stat_user_tables — check n_dead_tup for vacuum needs
• autovacuum tuning: lower thresholds for hot tables
• Monitor cache hit ratio: SELECT sum(heap_blks_hit) / sum(heap_blks_hit + heap_blks_read) FROM pg_statio_user_tables — should be > 99%

Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Fix
SERIAL / BIGSERIAL for PKs	BIGINT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY
No FK indexes	Add index on every FK column
OFFSET pagination	Cursor-based: WHERE id > $last
SELECT *	List needed columns
TIMESTAMP without timezone	TIMESTAMPTZ
Functions in WHERE (lower(col))	Expression index or citext extension
Storing structured data as text	JSONB with GIN index
Long-running transactions	Keep txns short, use idle_in_transaction_session_timeout