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I’m no expert on this topic and have used both PG and MySQL. My preference is MySQL purely because the syntax is easier, or at least consistent with what I lea

by apapli 8y ago

I’m no expert on this topic and have used both PG and MySQL. My preference is MySQL purely because the syntax is easier, or at least consistent with what I learned at uni in the late ‘90s. I also like MySQL workbench, although I’m sure there is an equivalent for PG I haven’t needed to look for one in recent years. If PG allowed me to use the same syntax as MySQL I’d probably switch, purely because experts and those with more experience than I generally prefer PG for a whole lot of reasons. EDIT: I should have googled first before replying. Looks like the syntax is near enough to identical for my simple needs and pgadmin will do what I need. I’m not sure why I had to learn some other weird syntax in 2012 for postgres, perhaps it was just shortcuts. Either way I’m going to seriously consider migrating now. :)

akavel 8y ago
What syntax do you have in mind? Can you give sone example of what you see as easier in MySQL than Postgres? Genuinely curious, I don't have money in that game
- apapli 8y ago
  I recall having to type /d from the command prompt to show databases (or something like that). I prefer “show databases”.
  - mrep 8y ago
    Haha, same. When I first used a postgres database, I got super annoyed trying to figure out how to simply show the databases and tables as I kept trying to use show and describe.
  - petepete 8y ago
    The standard way to do this would be to query `information_schema. tables`. PostgreSQL's approach isn't the most intuitive but it's well documented and very powerful. A few aliases could probably help, it's good they've added `quit`/,`exit` this time around.
- mgkimsal 8y ago
  i can say that setting up user accounts and permissions to get up and running is, to me, still easier under mysql, because you connect to mysql as root, and do the rest from inside. postgresql still seems to have 2 ways, but the majority of tutorials will demonstrate the "become the postgres user and add unix-level accounts". Things like having a unix-level "adduser" program that manages pg stuff is... odd to me, because it's not 'self-contained' in the app. It's more system-level admin stuff I need to do or be aware of. Whenever I bring this up, I get push back that I'm doing it wrong, and that of course you can just create user accounts from within pg itself via psql, and ... all other sort of attendant feedback. This approach had not seemed to be the norm/default approach, nor the one that was in multiple postgres books I had 10 years ago. I use pg on some projects, but am no expert in it.
MisterOctober 8y ago
I recently mostly switched to Postgres from MySql, and using Postgres really points up some of the odd behavior / 'features' of MySql -- e.g., its parsing but not enforcing check constraints, "USE database_name," disinclination to handle JSON data, etc. Also, Postgres' documentation is really fantastic. I bought a book on Postgres when I switched, but really I could have just stuck to the online manual and saved the thirty bucks. I like many things about MySql [as you imply, syntax a bit more verbose but easier to remember - e.g. "SHOW TABLES" vs "\d" ; I also like the nonstandard behavior of MySql 'GROUP BY' as it makes good sense to me ]-- but overall I'm really enjoying the flexibility of Postgres. PGadmin4, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired -- I generally stick to psql.
dtech 8y ago
MySQL workbench is still 10.000 miles ahead of PgAdmin. About three years ago the latest iteration PgAdmin 4 came out, which I tried on and off for a few months but was so buggy it was unusable for me. It might have gotten better since then. It's a shame, psql is awesome once you know enough to use it, but GUIs is how people start using RDMSes, and it's about the only thing that MySQL is clearly superior to PostgreSQL.
- GordonS 8y ago
  PgAdmin recently became an in-browser tool, and is much improved - in particular, it no longer uses GBs of memory and 90% of my CPU!
  - chinhodado 8y ago
    pgadmin 4 is still horribly slow, both when starting up and during operation, horribly bloated in size (100mb compared to pgadmin 3's 10mb). It still hogs CPU and RAM like hell.
    - Something1234 8y ago
      What ever happened to pgadmin3? Why did development stop on it? It was definitely a beast, with a lot of weirdness to it, and some minor pain points, but it was good. It was lightweight resource wise.
- mixmastamyk 8y ago
  Ever tried dbeaver?

by apapli 8y ago

akavel 8y ago

What syntax do you have in mind? Can you give sone example of what you see as easier in MySQL than Postgres? Genuinely curious, I don't have money in that game

apapli 8y ago
I recall having to type /d from the command prompt to show databases (or something like that). I prefer “show databases”.
- mrep 8y ago
  Haha, same. When I first used a postgres database, I got super annoyed trying to figure out how to simply show the databases and tables as I kept trying to use show and describe.
- petepete 8y ago
  The standard way to do this would be to query `information_schema. tables`. PostgreSQL's approach isn't the most intuitive but it's well documented and very powerful. A few aliases could probably help, it's good they've added `quit`/,`exit` this time around.
mgkimsal 8y ago
i can say that setting up user accounts and permissions to get up and running is, to me, still easier under mysql, because you connect to mysql as root, and do the rest from inside. postgresql still seems to have 2 ways, but the majority of tutorials will demonstrate the "become the postgres user and add unix-level accounts". Things like having a unix-level "adduser" program that manages pg stuff is... odd to me, because it's not 'self-contained' in the app. It's more system-level admin stuff I need to do or be aware of. Whenever I bring this up, I get push back that I'm doing it wrong, and that of course you can just create user accounts from within pg itself via psql, and ... all other sort of attendant feedback. This approach had not seemed to be the norm/default approach, nor the one that was in multiple postgres books I had 10 years ago. I use pg on some projects, but am no expert in it.

MisterOctober 8y ago

I recently mostly switched to Postgres from MySql, and using Postgres really points up some of the odd behavior / 'features' of MySql -- e.g., its parsing but not enforcing check constraints, "USE database_name," disinclination to handle JSON data, etc. Also, Postgres' documentation is really fantastic. I bought a book on Postgres when I switched, but really I could have just stuck to the online manual and saved the thirty bucks. I like many things about MySql [as you imply, syntax a bit more verbose but easier to remember - e.g. "SHOW TABLES" vs "\d" ; I also like the nonstandard behavior of MySql 'GROUP BY' as it makes good sense to me ]-- but overall I'm really enjoying the flexibility of Postgres. PGadmin4, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired -- I generally stick to psql.

dtech 8y ago

MySQL workbench is still 10.000 miles ahead of PgAdmin. About three years ago the latest iteration PgAdmin 4 came out, which I tried on and off for a few months but was so buggy it was unusable for me. It might have gotten better since then. It's a shame, psql is awesome once you know enough to use it, but GUIs is how people start using RDMSes, and it's about the only thing that MySQL is clearly superior to PostgreSQL.

GordonS 8y ago
PgAdmin recently became an in-browser tool, and is much improved - in particular, it no longer uses GBs of memory and 90% of my CPU!
- chinhodado 8y ago
  pgadmin 4 is still horribly slow, both when starting up and during operation, horribly bloated in size (100mb compared to pgadmin 3's 10mb). It still hogs CPU and RAM like hell.
  - Something1234 8y ago
    What ever happened to pgadmin3? Why did development stop on it? It was definitely a beast, with a lot of weirdness to it, and some minor pain points, but it was good. It was lightweight resource wise.
mixmastamyk 8y ago
Ever tried dbeaver?