pgDay Paris 2019 presentation: How to write SQL queries?

The videos from pgDay Paris 2019 are online, and they look stunning! If you’ve been to the conference, you will be able to enjoy great memories, and if you’ve not been there, you can now enjoy all the fine content that was recorded there at the Youtube Channel for pgDay.Paris.

This year at pgday Paris I tried something new. My presentation was interactive, and I’ve been writing queries together with the audience, making mistakes, loosing keystrokes and having all the fun!

The idea behind looking like a fool writing queries in front of an audience was to show the process behind those elegant queries that we tend to share in one piece, on a slide where they shine, beautifully indented. We don’t get to those queries writing them like we would prose. It takes multiple iterations to get there. From something quite simple to something more and more sophisticated, until we have exactly the result set we are interested in.

It’s the same when you integrate queries in a slide, a book, or a piece of code. First we use an interactive tool and refine the query until it works. Well as we would do with any other piece of code really. And then when the SQL query is ready, we commit it to your repository right? Oh. Maybe not. Maybe then we integrate the query in our application in a way or another.

Well, that’s what the talk is all about, the process behing how to write SQL queries.

Also, as the content comes from my book anyway, you could also subscribe below to get the free sample, or just go buy the book at the main home page of this website: The Art of PostgreSQL. Oh and because it’s the festivities season again, I’m offering you a nice gift: use the coupon code “FESTIVITIES1920” to get a nice 30% discount! Offer valid until January 6th.