MacLochlainns Weblog

If you’re wondering about this post, it shows the basic array of a set of integers and strings before showing you how to create nested tables of data in PostgreSQL. By the way, they’re not called nested tables in PostgreSQL, like they are in Oracle but perform like their Oracle cousins.

Let’s create a table with an auto-incrementing column and two arrays, one array of integers and another of strings:

-- Conditionally drop the demo table.
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS demo;
 
-- Create the test table.
CREATE TABLE demo
( demo_id     serial
, demo_number integer[5]
, demo_string varchar(5)[7]);

You can insert test values like this:

INSERT INTO demo
(demo_number, demo_string)
VALUES
( array[1,2,3,4,5]
, array['One','Two','Three','Four','Five','Six','Seven']);

Then, you can query them with this unnest function, like:

SELECT  unnest(demo_number) AS numbers
,       unnest(demo_string) AS strings
FROM    demo;

It returns:

 numbers | strings
---------+---------
 1       | One
 2       | Two
 3       | Three
 4       | Four
 5       | Five
         | Six
         | Seven
(7 rows)

You may note that the two arrays are asymmetrical. It only becomes an issue when you navigate the result in a PL/pgSQL cursor or imperative programming language, like Python.

Now, let’s do something more interesting like work with a composite user-defined type, like the player structure. You would create the composite user-defined type with this syntax:

-- Conditionally drop the player type.
DROP TYPE IF EXISTS player;
 
-- Create the player type.
CREATE TYPE player AS
( player_no        integer
, player_name      varchar(24)
, player_position  varchar(14)
, ab               integer
, r                integer
, h                integer
, bb               integer
, rbi              integer );

You can create a world_series table that include a players column that uses an array of player type, like

-- Conditionally drop the world_series table.
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS world_series;
 
-- Create the player type.
CREATE TABLE world_series
( world_series_id  serial
, team             varchar(24)
, players          player[30]
, game_no          integer
, year             integer );

If you’re familiar with the Oracle Database, you’d have to specify a tested table in the syntax. Fortunately, PostgreSQL doesn’t require that.

Insert two rows with the following statement:

INSERT INTO world_series
( team
, players
, game_no
, year )
VALUES
('San Francisco Giants'
, array[(24,'Willie Mayes','Center Fielder',5,0,1,0,0)::player
       ,(5,'Tom Haller','Catcher',4,1,2,0,2)::player]
, 4
, 1962 );

You can append to the array with the following syntax. A former student and I have a disagreement on whether this is shown in the PostgreSQL 8.15.4 Modifying Array documentation. I believe it can be inferred from the document and he doesn’t believe so. Anyway, here’s how you add an element to an existing array in a table with the UPDATE statement:

UPDATE world_series
SET    players = (SELECT array_append(players,(7,'Henry Kuenn','Right Fielder',3,0,0,1,0)::player) FROM world_series)
WHERE  team = 'San Francisco Giants'
AND    year = 1962
AND    game_no = 4;

Like Oracle’s nested tables, PostgreSQL’s arrays of composite user-defined types requires writing a PL/pgSQL function. I’ll try to add one of those shortly in another blog entry to show you how to edit and replace entries in stored arrays of composite user-defined types.

You can query the unnested rows and get a return set like a Python tuple with the following query:

SELECT unnest(players) AS player_list
FROM   world_series
WHERE  team = 'San Francisco Giants'
AND    year = 1962
AND    game_no = 4;

It returns the three rows from the players array:

                 player_list
----------------------------------------------
 (24,"Willie Mayes","Center Field",5,0,1,0,0)
 (5,"Tom Haller",Catcher,4,1,2,0,2)
 (7,"Henry Kuenn","Right Fielde",3,0,0,1,0)
(3 rows)

It returns the data set in entry-order. If we step outside of the standard 8.15 Arrays PostgreSQL Documentation, you can do much more with arrays (or nested tables). The balance of this example demonstrates some new syntax that helps you achieve constructive outcomes in PostgreSQL.

You can use a Common Table Expression (CTE) to get the columnar display of the player composite user-defined type. This type of solution is beyond the standard , like:

WITH list AS
 (SELECT unnest(players) AS row_result
  FROM   world_series
  WHERE  team = 'San Francisco Giants'
  AND    year = 1962
  AND    game_no = 4)
SELECT  (row_result).player_name
,       (row_result).player_no
,       (row_result).player_position
FROM     list;

If you’re unfamiliar with accessing composite user-defined types, I wrote a post on that 7 years ago. You can find the older blog entry PostgreSQL Composites on my blog.

It returns only the three requested columns of the player composite user-defined type:

 player_name  | player_no | player_position
--------------+-----------+-----------------
 Willie Mayes |        24 | Center Fielder
 Tom Haller   |         5 | Catcher
 Henry Kuenn  |         7 | Right Fielder
(3 rows)

You should note that the data is presented in an entry-ordered manner when unnested alone in the SELECT-list. That behavior changes when the SELECT-list includes non-array data.

The easiest way to display data from the non-array and array columns is to list them inside the SELECT-list of the CTE, like:

WITH list AS
 (SELECT game_no AS game
  ,      year
  ,      unnest(players) AS row_result
  FROM   world_series
  WHERE  team = 'San Francisco Giants'
  AND    year = 1962
  AND    game_no = 4)
SELECT   game
,        year 
,       (row_result).player_name
,       (row_result).player_no
,       (row_result).player_position
FROM     list;

It returns an ordered set of unnested rows when you include non-array columns, like:

 game | year | player_name  | player_no | player_position
------+------+--------------+-----------+-----------------
    4 | 1962 | Henry Kuenn  |         7 | Right Fielder
    4 | 1962 | Tom Haller   |         5 | Catcher
    4 | 1962 | Willie Mayes |        24 | Center Fielder
(3 rows)

While you can join the world_series table to the unnested array rows (returned as a derived table, its a bad idea. The mechanics to do it require you to return the primary key column in the same SELECT-list of the CTE. Then, you join the CTE list to the world_series table by using the world_series_id primary key.

However, there is no advantage to an inner join approach and it imposes unnecessary processing on the database server. The odd rationale that I heard when I noticed somebody was using a CTE to base-table join was: “That’s necessary so they could use column aliases for the non-array columns.” That’s not true because you can use the aliases inside the CTE, as shown above when game is an alias to the game_no column.

As always, I hope this helps those looking to solve a problem in PostgreSQL.

In October 2019, I wrote a post with anonymous block programs to drop tables, sequences, routines, and triggers. Two weeks later, I wrote another post to drop all overloaded routines. However, I recognized the other day that I should have written a function that let you target which function or procedure you want to drop.

The older code only let you drop all of your functions or procedures. That was overkill when you’re working on new functions or procedures.

This post provides a utility for those writing functions and procedures in a public schema of any database in a PostgreSQL installation. It is designed to drop functions or procedures from the public schema.

The code follows below:

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CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION drop_routine( IN pv_routine_name    VARCHAR(64)
                       , IN pv_routine_type    VARCHAR(64))
  RETURNS INTEGER AS
  $$
  DECLARE
    /* Declare the current catalog. */
    lv_local_catalog  VARCHAR(64) := current_database();
 
    /* Declare return type variable. */
    lv_retval  INTEGER := 1;
 
    /* Manage data dictionary case mechanics:
       ======================================
	     routine_name is always in lowercase.
	     routine_type is always in uppercase. */
    lv_routine_name  VARCHAR(64) := LOWER(pv_routine_name);
    lv_routine_type  VARCHAR(64) := UPPER(pv_routine_type);
 
    /* Declare an indefinite length string for SQL statement. */
    sql  VARCHAR;
 
    /* Declare variables to manage cursor return values. */
    row  RECORD;
    arg  VARCHAR;
 
    /* Declare parameter list. */
    list VARCHAR;
 
    /* Declare a routine cursor. */
    routine_cursor CURSOR( cv_routine_name  VARCHAR
                         , cv_routine_type  VARCHAR ) FOR
      SELECT r.routine_name
      ,      r.specific_name
      ,      r.routine_type
      FROM   information_schema.routines r
      WHERE  r.specific_catalog = current_database()
      AND    r.routine_schema = 'public'
      AND    r.routine_type = cv_routine_type
      AND    r.routine_name = cv_routine_name;
 
    /* Declare a parameter cursor. */
    parameter_cursor CURSOR( cv_specific_name  VARCHAR ) FOR
      SELECT args.data_type
      FROM   information_schema.parameters args
      WHERE  args.specific_catalog = current_database()
      AND    args.specific_schema = 'public'
      AND    args.specific_name = cv_specific_name;
 
  BEGIN
    /* Open the cursor. */
    OPEN routine_cursor(lv_routine_name, lv_routine_type);
    <<row_loop>>
    LOOP
      /* Fetch table names. */
      FETCH routine_cursor INTO row;
 
      /* Exit when no more records are found. */
      EXIT row_loop WHEN NOT FOUND;
 
      /* Initialize parameter list. */
      list := '(';
 
      /* Open the parameter cursor. */
      OPEN parameter_cursor(row.specific_name::varchar);
      <<parameter_loop>>
      LOOP
        FETCH parameter_cursor INTO arg;
 
        /* Exit the parameter loop. */
        EXIT parameter_loop WHEN NOT FOUND;
 
        /* Add parameter and delimit more than one parameter with a comma. */
        IF LENGTH(list) > 1 THEN
          list := CONCAT(list,',',arg);
        ELSE
          list := CONCAT(list,arg);
        END IF;
      END LOOP;
 
      /* Close the parameter list. */
      list := CONCAT(list,')');
 
      /* Close the parameter cursor. */
      CLOSE parameter_cursor;
 
      /* Concatenate together a DDL to drop the table with prejudice. */
      sql := 'DROP '||row.routine_type||' IF EXISTS '||row.routine_name||list;
 
      /* Execute the DDL statement. */
      EXECUTE sql;
 
      /* Assign success flag of 0. */
      lv_retval := 0;
 
    END LOOP;
 
    /* Close the routine_cursor. */
    CLOSE routine_cursor;
 
    /* Return the output text variable. */
    RETURN lv_retval;
  END
  $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

If you now create a series of hello overloaded functions, like:

CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION hello()
  RETURNS text AS
  $$
  DECLARE
    output  VARCHAR;
  BEGIN
    SELECT 'Hello World!' INTO output;
    RETURN output;
  END
  $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
 
CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION hello(whom text)
  RETURNS text AS
  $$
  DECLARE
    output  VARCHAR;
  BEGIN
    SELECT CONCAT('Hello ',whom,'!') INTO output;
    RETURN output;
  END
  $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
 
CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION hello(id int, whom text)
  RETURNS text AS
  $$
  DECLARE
    output  VARCHAR;
  BEGIN
    SELECT CONCAT('[',id,'] Hello ',whom,'!') INTO output;
    RETURN output;
  END
  $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

After you create the overloaded functions, you can query their status from the information_schema.routines table in the data dictionary:

SELECT routine_name
,      specific_name
,      routine_type
FROM   information_schema.routines
WHERE  specific_catalog = current_setting('videodb.catalog_name')
AND    routine_schema = 'public'
AND    routine_name = 'hello';

Which shows you the three versions of the hello function:

 routine_name | specific_name | routine_type
--------------+---------------+--------------
 hello        | hello_18100   | FUNCTION
 hello        | hello_18101   | FUNCTION
 hello        | hello_18102   | FUNCTION
(3 rows)

You can drop all versions of the hello functions by calling the drop_routine function:

SELECT CASE
         WHEN drop_routine('hello','function') = 0
         THEN 'Success'
         ELSE 'Failure'
       END AS drop_routine;

It returns the following:

 drop_routine
--------------
 Success
(1 row)

As always, I hope this helps those looking for how to routinely test new functions and procedures.

A number of my students want to run the databases and development environments on Windows rather than Linux. Some of the students have various problems configuring a virtual machine or Docker environment on their laptops.

Installing Python on Windows is quite straightforward. You simply open a Windows Command Line Interface (CLI) with Administrator privileges and type python at the command line. It will launch a dialog that lets you download and install Python.

After the installation, you are returned to the Windows CLI where you can type python to launch the Python IDE. You’ll learn that it’s an older version when it opens.

Python 3.10.2 (tags/v3.10.2:a58ebcc, Jan 17 2022, 14:12:15) [MSC v.1929 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

After installing Python, I started to install drivers with the Python package-management utility – PIP. I loaded the psycopg2 driver first and discovered that Windows installed an older version of PIP, as qualified when I installed the Python library:

pip install psycopg2
Collecting psycopg2
  Downloading psycopg2-2.9.3-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl (1.2 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 1.2 MB 1.6 MB/s
Installing collected packages: psycopg2
Successfully installed psycopg2-2.9.3
WARNING: You are using pip version 21.2.4; however, version 22.0.3 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'C:\Users\mclaughlinm\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0\python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.

So, I immediately installed the new version of PIP and discovered that I have to manually reset the %PATH% environment variable.

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
Requirement already satisfied: pip in c:\program files\windowsapps\pythonsoftwarefoundation.python.3.10_3.10.752.0_x64__qbz5n2kfra8p0\lib\site-packages (21.2.4)
Collecting pip
  Downloading pip-22.0.3-py3-none-any.whl (2.1 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 2.1 MB 656 kB/s
Installing collected packages: pip
  WARNING: The scripts pip.exe, pip3.10.exe and pip3.exe are installed in 'C:\Users\mclaughlinm\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python310\Scripts' which is not on PATH.
  Consider adding this directory to PATH or, if you prefer to suppress this warning, use --no-warn-script-location.
Successfully installed pip-22.0.3

The default location for the PIP.exe and PIP3.exe are found in the:

C:\Users\mclaughlinm\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps

Rather than put the newer directory in the System Environment %PATH% variable, I created a batch file that lets me set it only when I need it.

SET PATH=C:\Users\mclaughlinm\AppData\Local\Packages\PythonSoftwareFoundation.Python.3.10_qbz5n2kfra8p0\LocalCache\local-packages\Python310\Scripts;%PATH%

After installing the psycopg2 driver, I tested the new_hire.sql and new_hire.py files from this earlier Linux post successfully. I hope this helps those looking to work with Python on Windows.

The most straightforward way to view the description of a PostgreSQL table is the \d command. For example, this lets you display an account_list table:

\d account_list

Unfortunately, this shows you the table, indexes, and foreign key constraints. Often, you only want to see the list of columns in positional order. So, I wrote a little function to let me display only the table and columns.

There are a few techniques in the script that might seem new to some developers. For example, the data types of the return parameter values of a function that returns values from the data dictionary are specific to types used by the data dictionary. These specialized types are required because the SQL cursor gathers the information from the data dictionary in the information_schema, and most of these types can’t be cast as variable length strings.

A simple assumption that the data dictionary strings would implicitly cast to variable length strings is incorrect. That’s because while you can query them like VARCHAR variables they don’t cast to variable length string. If you wrote a wrapper function that returned VARCHAR variables, you would probably get a result like this when you call your function:

ERROR:  structure of query does not match function result type
DETAIL:  Returned type information_schema.sql_identifier does not match expected type character varying in column 1.

The “character varying” is another name for a VARCHAR data type. Some notes will advise you to fix this type of error by using the column name and a %TYPE. The %TYPE anchors the data type in the function’s parameter list to the actual data type of the data dictionary’s table. You would implement that suggestion with code like:

RETURNS TABLE ( table_schema      information_schema.columns.table_schema%TYPE
              , table_name        information_schema.columns.table_name%TYPE
              , ordinal_position  information_schema.columns.ordinal_position%TYPE
              , column_name       information_schema.columns.column_name%TYPE
              , data_type         information_schema.columns.data_type%TYPE
              , is_nullable       information_schema.columns.is_nullable%TYPE ) AS

Unfortunately, your function would raise a NOTICE for every dynamically anchored column at runtime. The NOTICE messages would appear as follows for the describe_table function with anchored parameter values:

psql:describe_table.sql:34: NOTICE:  type reference information_schema.columns.table_schema%TYPE converted to information_schema.sql_identifier
psql:describe_table.sql:35: NOTICE:  type reference information_schema.columns.table_name%TYPE converted to information_schema.sql_identifier
psql:describe_table.sql:36: NOTICE:  type reference information_schema.columns.ordinal_position%TYPE converted to information_schema.cardinal_number
psql:describe_table.sql:37: NOTICE:  type reference information_schema.columns.column_name%TYPE converted to information_schema.sql_identifier
psql:describe_table.sql:38: NOTICE:  type reference information_schema.columns.data_type%TYPE converted to information_schema.character_data
psql:describe_table.sql:39: NOTICE:  type reference information_schema.columns.is_nullable%TYPE converted to information_schema.yes_or_no

As a rule, there’s a better solution when you know how to discover the underlying data types. You can discover the required data types with the following query of the pg_attribute table in the information_schema:

SELECT attname
,      atttypid::regtype
FROM   pg_attribute
WHERE  attrelid = 'information_schema.columns'::regclass
AND    attname IN ('table_schema','table_name','ordinal_position','column_name','data_type','is_nullable')
ORDER  BY attnum;

It returns:

     attname      |              atttypid
------------------+------------------------------------
 table_schema     | information_schema.sql_identifier
 table_name       | information_schema.sql_identifier
 ordinal_position | information_schema.cardinal_number
 column_name      | information_schema.sql_identifier
 is_nullable      | information_schema.yes_or_no
 data_type        | information_schema.character_data
(6 rows)

Only the character_data type can be replaced with a VARCHAR data type, the others should be typed as shown above. Here’s the modified describe_table function.

CREATE OR REPLACE
  FUNCTION describe_table (table_name_in  VARCHAR)
  RETURNS TABLE ( table_schema      information_schema.sql_identifier
                , table_name        information_schema.sql_identifier
                , ordinal_position  information_schema.cardinal_number
                , column_name       information_schema.sql_identifier
                , data_type         VARCHAR
                , is_nullable       information_schema.yes_or_no ) AS
$$
BEGIN
  RETURN QUERY
  SELECT   c.table_schema
  ,        c.table_name
  ,        c.ordinal_position
  ,        c.column_name
  ,        CASE
             WHEN c.character_maximum_length IS NOT NULL
             THEN CONCAT(c.data_type, '(', c.character_maximum_length, ')')
             ELSE
               CASE
                 WHEN c.data_type NOT IN ('date','timestamp','timestamp with time zone')
                 THEN CONCAT(c.data_type, '(', numeric_precision::text, ')')
                 ELSE c.data_type
               END
           END AS modified_type
  ,        c.is_nullable
  FROM     information_schema.columns c
  WHERE    c.table_schema NOT IN ('information_schema', 'pg_catalog')
  AND      c.table_name = table_name_in
  ORDER BY c.table_schema
  ,        c.table_name
  ,        c.ordinal_position;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

If you’re new to PL/pgSQL table functions, you can check my basic tutorial on table functions. You call the describe_table table function with the following syntax:

SELECT * FROM describe_table('account_list');

It returns:

 table_schema |  table_name  | ordinal_position |   column_name    |        data_type         | is_nullable
--------------+--------------+------------------+------------------+--------------------------+-------------
 public       | account_list |                1 | account_list_id  | integer(32)              | NO
 public       | account_list |                2 | account_number   | character varying(10)    | NO
 public       | account_list |                3 | consumed_date    | date                     | YES
 public       | account_list |                4 | consumed_by      | integer(32)              | YES
 public       | account_list |                5 | created_by       | integer(32)              | NO
 public       | account_list |                6 | creation_date    | timestamp with time zone | NO
 public       | account_list |                7 | last_updated_by  | integer(32)              | NO
 public       | account_list |                8 | last_update_date | timestamp with time zone | NO
(8 rows)

As always, I hope this helps those looking for a solution to functions that wrap the data dictionary and display table data from the PostgreSQL data dictionary.

This post is a step-by-step install guide to PostgreSQL 14 on Windows 10. It sometimes makes me curious that folks want a summary of screen shots from a Microsoftw Software Installer (MSI) because they always appear to me as straightforward.

This walks you through installing PostgreSQL 14, EDS’s version of Apache, supplemental connection libraries, and pgAdmin4. You can find the post-installation steps in my earlier Configure PostgreSQL 14 post.

PostgreSQL Database 14 Installation Steps

1. The first thing you need to do is download the PostgreSQL MSI file, which should be in your C:\Users\username\Downloads directory. You can double-click on the MSI file.

2. After double-clicking on the MSI file, you are prompted by User Account Control to allow the PostgreSQL MSI to make changes to your device. Clicking the Yes button is the only way forward.

3. The Setup – PostgreSQL dialog requires you click the Next button to proceed.

4. The Installation Directory dialog prompts you for an installation directory. The default directory is C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\14 and you should use it. Click the Next button to continue.

5. The Select Components dialog prompts you to choose the products to install. You should choose all four – PostgreSQL Server, pgAdmin 4, Stack Builder, and Command Line Tools. Click the Next button to continue.

6. The Password dialog prompts you for the PostgreSQL superuser password. In a development system for your local computer, you may want to use something straightforward like cangetin. Click the Next button to continue.

7. The Setup dialog lets you select the port number for the PostgreSQL listener. Port 5432 is the standard port for a PostgreSQL database, and ports 5433 and 5434 are used sometimes. Click the Next button to continue.

8. The Advanced Options dialog lets you select the Locale for the database. As a rule for a development instance you should chose the Default locale. Click the Next button to continue.

9. The Pre Installation Summary dialog tells you what you’ve chosen to install. It gives you a chance to verify what you are installing. Click the Next button to continue.

10. The Ready to Install dialog lets you pause before you install the software. Click the Next button to continue.

11. The Installing dialog is a progress bar that will take several minutes to complete. When the progress bar completes, click the Next button to continue.

12. The Completing the PostgreSQL Setup Wizard dialog tells you that the installation is complete. Click the Finish button to complete the PostgreSQL installation.

13. The Welcome to Stack Builder! dialog lets you choose an installation from those on your computer to build a software stack. Click the drop down box to chose an installation.

14. The second copy of the Welcome to Stack Builder! dialog shows the choice of the PostgreSQL installation you just completed. Click on the Next button to continue.

15. The Stack Builder dialog prompts you to choose the products to install. You should choose all four database drivers – Npgsql, pgJDBC, psqlODBC, psqlODBC; and the PostGIS 3.1 and PostGIS 3.2 Bundles for PostgreSQL. Then, click the Next button to continue.

16. The Stack Builder dialog shows you the products you will install. You should choose all four database drivers – Npgsql, pgJDBC, psqlODBC, psqlODBC; and the PostGIS 3.1 and PostGIS 3.2 Bundles for PostgreSQL. Click the Next button to continue.

17. The Stack Builder dialog shows a download progress bar subdialog, which may take some time to complete. The Stack Builder dialog’s Progress Bar automatically advances to the next dialog box.

18. The Stack Builder dialog tells you the products you downloaded. Click the Next button to continue the developer stack.

19. The Setup dialog advises that you are installing the PEM-HTTPD Setup Wizard. Click the Next button to continue.

20. The Installation Directory dialog prompts you for an installation directory. The default directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\edb\pem\httpd and you should use it because that’s where Windows 10 puts 64-bit libraries. Click the Next button to continue.

21. The Setup dialog lets you select the port number for the HTTP listener. Port 8080 is the standard port for an HTTP listener, and ports 8081, 8082, and so forth are used when you have more than one HTTP listener on a single server or workstation. Click the Next button to continue.

22. The Ready to Install dialog lets you pause before you install the software. Click the Next button to continue.

23. The Installing dialog is a progress bar that will take several minutes to complete. When the progress bar completes, click the Next button when it becomes available to continue.

24. The Windows Security Alert dialog asks you to allow the Apache HTTP Server to use port 8080. Click the Private networks, such as my home or work network checkbox and then the Allow access button to continue.

25. The Setup dialog advises that you have completed the installation of the PEM-HTTPD Setup Wizard. Click the Finish button to continue.

26. The Stack Builder dialog advises you that all four database drivers – Npgsql, pgJDBC, psqlODBC, psqlODBC are downloaded and ready to install. Click the Next button to continue.

27. The Installation Directory dialog prompts you for an installation directory. The default directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\PostgreSQL\Npgsql and you should use it because that’s where Windows 10 puts 64-bit libraries and the subdirectory meets the standard installation convention for Microsoft .Net libraries. Click the Next button to continue.

28. The Ready to Install dialog lets you pause before you install the Npgsql software for Microsoft .Net. Click the Next button to continue.

29. The Setup dialog advises that you have completed the installation of npgsql driver for Microsoft .Net. Click the Finish button to continue.

30. The Setup dialog advises that you are installing the pgJDBC diver Setup Wizard. Click the Next button to continue.

31. The Installation Directory dialog prompts you for an installation directory. The default directory is C:\Program Files (x86)\PostgreSQL\pgJDBC and you should use it because that’s where Windows 10 puts 64-bit libraries and the subdirectory meets the standard installation convention for libraries. Click the Next button to continue.

32. The Ready to Install dialog lets you pause before you install the pgJDBC software. Click the Next button to continue.

33. The Setup dialog advises that you have completed the installation of pgJDBC driver. Click the Finish button to continue.

34. The Advisory Message pgAdmin is Starting dialog is really telling you to be patient. It can take a couple minutes to launch pgAdmin.

35. The Password dialog prompts you for the pgAdmin superuser password. In a development system for your local computer, you may want to use something straightforward like cangetin. Click the Next button to continue.

36. Enter your password from the earlier step and click the OK button.

37. This is the pgAdmin console. You should see one database and tweleve login/group roles.

The foregoing walked you through the installation of PostgreSQL, the connector libraries and pgAdmin utility. Next, you have to make it real with configuration, which sets up the tablespace, database, and connectivity. I hope it helps those who would like to see the installation steps.

After you install PostgreSQL 14 on Windows, there are a few steps to create a sandbox database. This post shows you those steps, including a couple Windows OS tasks you’ll need to complete. You should note that these instructions are for the PostgreSQL psql Command Line Interface (CLI).

Open a Command Prompt with Administrator privileges. It should give you a command prompt like the following:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19042.1466]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 
C:\Users\username>

Type psql to launch the PostgreSQL CLI and then the return or enter key:

C:\Users\username>psql

Most likely, you’ll get the following error message. It means that your System Path environment variable doesn’t include the directory where the psql executable is found, and that’s why the command is not recognized.

'psql' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

You can set it temporarily in your current Windows CLI with the following command:

set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\14\bin;

For those familiar with Windows CLI navigation in prior releases, the convention is to append a semicolon at the end of the item added to the %PATH% environment variable. If you were to put the semicolon between the %PATH% and new directory path there would be two semicolons together. While it won’t do any harm, it’s best to follow the new convention or style.

CRITICAL NOTE: The rest of the post assumes you have set the correct %PATH% environment variable or added it to your System’s Path environment variable and restarted the Windows CLI after adding it through the GUI tool. The reason you need to restart the Windows CLI is that the %PATH% environment variable is inherited at startup and doesn’t change in an open Windows CLI shell.

Another common mistake some users make, at least those who have used an older version of the psql utility on a Linux distribution (or “distro”), is to type psql without any arguments to become the superuser. This error doesn’t occur in Linux because you most likely connected as the postgres user before trying to connect to the PostgreSQL database. A quick demonstration should illustrate the error and support explaining why it occurs on the Windows OS.

Attempting to connect to the PostgreSQL database as a non-postgres user:

C:\Users\username>psql

You should get the following error:

psql: error: connection to server at "localhost" (::1), port 5432 failed: fe_sendauth: no password supplied

This error occurs because you’re not the postgres user, and all other users must designate that they’re connecting to the superuser account. The correct syntax is:

C:\Users\username>psql -U postgres

Then, you’ll be prompted for the password that you set when you installed PostreSQL database. Enter that password from the installation at the prompt.

Password for user postgres:
psql (14.1)
WARNING: Console code page (437) differs from Windows code page (1252)
         8-bit characters might not work correctly. See psql reference
         page "Notes for Windows users" for details.
Type "help" for help.
 
postgres=#

The warning message is telling you that the character set collation differs between your Windows OS and the PostgreSQL database. We’ll discuss this more later but for the sake of almost all your work, it won’t matter. If the warning message bothers you, you can run the chcp command before launching PostgreSQL when you open your Windows CLI:

chcp 1252

The chcp command changes your terminal character set to align with the Latin 1 character set, which enables you to use things like non-English accent characters (the umlaut over an o, or ö). After running the You will see this when you connect after running that command:

psql (14.2)
Type "help" for help.
 
postgres#

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor

Now that you’re connected as the superuser, let’s examine the steps to configure your playground or videodb database. There are five steps to configure your database and one step to connect and use the videodb database as the student user

1. Create Physical Directory

postgres=# show data_directory;

           data_directory
-------------------------------------
 C:/Program Files/PostgreSQL/14/data
(1 row)

md video_db

2. Create Tablespace

CREATE TABLESPACE video_db
  OWNER postgres
  LOCATION 'C:\Users\username\video_db';

CREATE TABLESPACE

SELECT * FROM pg_tablespace;

  oid  |  spcname   | spcowner | spcacl | spcoptions
-------+------------+----------+--------+------------
  1663 | pg_default |       10 |        |
  1664 | pg_global  |       10 |        |
 16395 | video_db   |       10 |        |
(3 rows)

3. Create a Database

postgres=# SELECT datname, datcollate FROM pg_database WHERE datname = 'postgres';

  datname  |         datcollate
-----------+----------------------------
 postgres  | English_United States.1252
(1 row)

CREATE DATABASE videodb
  WITH OWNER = postgres
       ENCODING = 'UTF8'
       TABLESPACE = video_db
       LC_COLLATE = 'English_United States.1252'
       LC_CTYPE = 'English_United States.1252'
       CONNECTION LIMIT = -1;

postgres# \l

                                                 List of databases
   Name    |  Owner   | Encoding |          Collate           |           Ctype            |   Access privileges
-----------+----------+----------+----------------------------+----------------------------+-----------------------
 postgres  | postgres | UTF8     | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 |
 template0 | postgres | UTF8     | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 | =c/postgres          +
           |          |          |                            |                            | postgres=CTc/postgres
 template1 | postgres | UTF8     | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 | =c/postgres          +
           |          |          |                            |                            | postgres=CTc/postgres
 videodb   | postgres | UTF8     | English_United States.1252 | English_United States.1252 |
(4 rows)

COMMENT ON DATABASE videodb IS 'Video Store Database';

4. Create a Role, Grant, and User

5. Create a Schema

psql -U postgres -W

GRANT CREATE ON DATABASE videodb TO student;

QUIT;

psql -U postgres -W

CREATE SCHEMA app;

SELECT   * 
FROM     pg_catalog.pg_namespace
ORDER BY nspname;

  oid  |      nspname       | nspowner |               nspacl
-------+--------------------+----------+-------------------------------------
 16399 | app                |    16398 |
 13388 | information_schema |       10 | {postgres=UC/postgres,=U/postgres}
    11 | pg_catalog         |       10 | {postgres=UC/postgres,=U/postgres}
    99 | pg_toast           |       10 |
  2200 | public             |       10 | {postgres=UC/postgres,=UC/postgres}
(5 rows)

-- Set client messages to warning or error, which means any
-- notice associated with the if exists clause is suppressed.
SET client_min_messages TO warning;
 
-- Conditionally drop an existing revision_history table in
-- the app schema.
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS revision_history;
 
-- Create a revision_history table.
CREATE TABLE app.revision_history
( revision_history_id serial
, session_id          VARCHAR
, table_name          VARCHAR
, revision_id         INTEGER );

\I revision_history.sql

\d revision_history

Did not find any relation named "revision_history".

show search_path;

   search_path   
-----------------
 "$user", public
(1 row)

SET search_path TO app, "$user", public;

\d revision_history

                                                  Table "app.revision_history"
       Column        |       Type        | Collation | Nullable |                            Default                            
---------------------+-------------------+-----------+----------+---------------------------------------------------------------
 revision_history_id | integer           |           | not null | nextval('revision_history_revision_history_id_seq'::regclass)
 session_id          | character varying |           |          | 
 table_name          | character varying |           |          | 
 revision_id         | integer           |           |          |

6. Connect as student to videodb:

psql -d videodb -U student -W

Password:
psql (14.1)
WARNING: Console code page (437) differs from Windows code page (1252)
         8-bit characters might not work correctly. See psql reference
         page "Notes for Windows users" for details.
Type "help" for help.
 
videodb=>

SELECT current_database();

 current_database 
------------------
 videodb
(1 row)

This has shown you how to create a videodb tablespace, a videodb database, a dba role, a student user, an app schema, and connect to your new videodb database as the student user. As always, I hope it lets you get a lot down with little effort and avoiding pages and pages of documentation.

After you create and provision the Oracle Database 21c Express Edition (XE), you can create a c##student container user with the following two step process.

1. Create a c##student Oracle user account with the following command:

   CREATE USER c##student IDENTIFIED BY student DEFAULT TABLESPACE users QUOTA 200M ON users TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp;

   CREATE USER c##student IDENTIFIED BY student DEFAULT TABLESPACE users QUOTA 200M ON users TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp;

2. Grant necessary privileges to the newly created c##student user:

   GRANT CREATE CLUSTER, CREATE INDEXTYPE, CREATE OPERATOR , CREATE PROCEDURE, CREATE SEQUENCE, CREATE SESSION , CREATE TABLE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE TYPE , CREATE VIEW TO c##student;

   GRANT CREATE cluster, CREATE indextype, CREATE operator , CREATE PROCEDURE, CREATE SEQUENCE, CREATE SESSION , CREATE TABLE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE TYPE , CREATE VIEW TO c##student;

As always, I hope this helps those looking for how to do something that’s less than clear because everybody uses tools.

The first time you launch SQL Developer, you may see a very small or tiny display on the screen. With some high resolution screens the text is unreadable. Unless you manually configure the sqldeveloper shortcut, you generally can’t use it.

On my virtualization on a 27″ screen it looks like:

As an Administrator user, you right click the SQLDeveloper icon and click the Compatibility tab, which should look like the following dialog. You need to check the Compatibility Mode, which by default is unchecked with Windows 8 displayed in the select list.

Check the Compatibility Mode box and the select list will no longer be gray scaled. Click on the select list box and choose Windows 7. After the change you should see the following:

After that change, you need to click on the Change high DPI settings gray scaled button, which will display the following dialog box.

Click the Override high DPI scaling behavior check box. It will change the gray highlighted Scaling Performed by select box to white. Then, you click the Scaling Performed by select box and choose the System option.

Click the OK button on the nested SQLDeveloper Properties dialog box. Then, click the Apply button on the SQLDeveloper Properties button and the OK button. You will see a workable SQL Developer interface when you launch the program through your modified shortcut.

One of the errors that defeats a lot of new users who install the Oracle Database on the Windows operating system is a two-step event. The first step occurs when you try to connect to the database and it raises the following error:

SQL*Plus: Release 18.0.0.0.0 - Production on Fri Jan 7 21:00:42 2022
Version 18.4.0.0.0
 
Copyright (c) 1982, 2018, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
 
ERROR:
ORA-12541: TNS:no listener

The second step may occur after you get the “no listener” error when you try to start the Oracle listener and it fails to start. The Oracle listener control command is:

lsnrctl start

When it returns the following error:

LSNRCTL FOR 64-bit Windows: Version 18.0.0.0.0 - Production ON 07-JAN-2022 21:02:20
 
Copyright (c) 1991, 2018, Oracle.  ALL rights reserved.
 
Starting tnslsnr: please wait...
 
Unable TO OpenSCManager: err=5
TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error
TNS-00530: Protocol adapter error

The problem is generally in two configuration files. They are the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files. This typically occurs when the developer fails to set the localhost in the Windows operating system hosts configuration file. The chain of events that causes these errors can be avoided when the user puts the following two lines:

127.0.0.1      localhost
::1            localhost

in the following hosts file:

C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

You can typically avoid these errors when you configure the hosts configuration file correctly before installing the Oracle Database. That’s because the Oracle database installation will use localhost keyword instead of the current, and typically DHCP assigned, IP address.

The loss of connectivity errors typically occur when the IP address changes after the installation. DHCP IP addresses often change as machines disconnect and reconnect to a network.

You can fix a DHCP IP installation of an Oracle database by editing the listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files. You replace the IP addresses with the localhost keyword.

The listener.ora and tnsnames.ora files look like the following for an Oracle Database 21c Express Edition (provided you installed them in a C:\app\username directory:

listener.ora

# listener.ora Network Configuration File: C:\app\username\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE\NETWORK\ADMIN\listener.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.
 
DEFAULT_SERVICE_LISTENER = XE
 
SID_LIST_LISTENER =
 (SID_LIST =
   (SID_DESC =
     (SID_NAME = CLRExtProc)
     (ORACLE_HOME = C:\app\username\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE)
     (PROGRAM = extproc)
     (ENVS = "EXTPROC_DLLS=ONLY:C:\app\username\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE\bin\oraclr21.dll")
   )
 )
 
LISTENER =
 (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
   (DESCRIPTION =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
   )
 )

tnsnames.ora

# tnsnames.ora Network Configuration File: C:\app\mclaughlinm\product\21.0.0\dbhomeXE\NETWORK\ADMIN\tnsnames.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.
 
XE =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
   (CONNECT_DATA =
     (SERVER = DEDICATED)
     (SERVICE_NAME = XE)
   )
 )
 
LISTENER_XE =
 (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = localhost)(PORT = 1521))
 
 
ORACLR_CONNECTION_DATA =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS_LIST =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1521))
   )
   (CONNECT_DATA =
     (SID = CLRExtProc)
     (PRESENTATION = RO)
   )
 )

As always, I hope this helps those looking for a solution to something that can take more time than it should to fix.

Sometimes life is too surreal. Like when somebody says, “How do you get title case in an Oracle database?” That’s when you know three things about the individual, while suppressing laughter. They’re not very experienced with SQL, likely lazy, and don’t read the documentation.

I had a little fun with somebody today by taking them down a small rat-hole. “Oh, gosh … ” I said, “… let’s write a function for that.” Here’s the joke function, like:

CREATE OR REPLACE
FUNCTION title_case
( string VARCHAR2 ) RETURN VARCHAR2 IS
BEGIN
  /* Change upper case to title case. */
  RETURN UPPER(SUBSTR(string,1,1)) || LOWER(SUBSTR(string,2,LENGTH(string)));
END title_case;
/

Then, we tested it with a query from the pseudo dual table:

SELECT title_case('incredible') AS "Proper Name" FROM dual;

It returned:

Proper Name
----------
Incredible

Then, I said “Oh, that’s not his proper name in the Pixar World.” It should be: Mr. Incredible. Let’s try that:

SELECT title_case('mr. incredible') AS "Proper Name" FROM dual;

It returned:

Proper Name
--------------
Mr. incredible

Then, I said: “That’s not what we want at all. Should we rewrite our function or simply use the INITCAP built-in function?” Then, I wrote:

SELECT INITCAP('mr. incredible') AS "Proper Name" FROM dual;

It returned:

Proper Name
--------------
Mr. Incredible

Well, needless to say my acquaintance got it immediately and said “I should have Googled it or read the documentation.” I concurred with his observation.

Just sharing a cute day’s event that made me laugh and cry at the same time because there are too many who say SQL isn’t worth learning.