Hoja de referencia rápida de PostgreSQL: Una guía rápida para desarrolladores

Referencia rápida a PostgreSQL

Índice

Un rápido referencia para el día a día
PostgreSQL
de trabajo: conexiones, sintaxis SQL, comandos meta-psql, rendimiento, JSON, funciones de ventana y más.

Una guía rápida de SQL concisa que cubre los comandos y operaciones más esenciales también está disponible.

logotipo de PostgreSQL

Conectar & Básicos

# Conectar
psql -h HOST -p 5432 -U USER -d DB
psql $DATABASE_URL

# Dentro de psql
\conninfo             -- mostrar conexión
\l[+]                 -- listar bases de datos
\c DB                 -- conectar a DB
\dt[+] [schema.]pat   -- listar tablas
\dv[+]                -- listar vistas
\ds[+]                -- listar secuencias
\df[+] [pat]          -- listar funciones
\d[S+] name           -- describir tabla/vista/secuencia
\dn[+]                -- listar esquemas
\du[+]                -- listar roles
\timing               -- alternar temporizador de consulta
\x                    -- mostrar en formato expandido
\e                    -- editar buffer en $EDITOR
\i file.sql           -- ejecutar archivo
\copy ...             -- copia desde el cliente
\! shell_cmd          -- ejecutar comando de shell

Tipos de datos (comunes)

  • Numéricos: smallint, integer, bigint, decimal(p,s), numeric, real, double precision, serial, bigserial
  • Texto: text, varchar(n), char(n)
  • Booleano: boolean
  • Temporal: timestamp [con/sin zona horaria], date, time, interval
  • UUID: uuid
  • JSON: json, jsonb (preferido)
  • Arreglo: type[] p. ej. text[]
  • Red: inet, cidr, macaddr
  • Geométrico: point, line, polygon, etc.

Verificar la versión de PostgreSQL

SELECT version();

Versión del servidor PostgreSQL:

pg_config --version

Versión del cliente PostgreSQL:

psql --version

DDL (Crear / Modificar)

-- Crear esquema & tabla
CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS app;
CREATE TABLE app.users (
  id           bigserial PRIMARY KEY,
  email        text NOT NULL UNIQUE,
  name         text,
  active       boolean NOT NULL DEFAULT true,
  created_at   timestamptz NOT NULL DEFAULT now(),
  profile      jsonb,
  tags         text[]
);

-- Modificar
ALTER TABLE app.users ADD COLUMN last_login timestamptz;
ALTER TABLE app.users ALTER COLUMN name SET NOT NULL;
ALTER TABLE app.users DROP COLUMN tags;

-- Restricciones
ALTER TABLE app.users ADD CONSTRAINT email_lower_uk UNIQUE (lower(email));

-- Índices
CREATE INDEX ON app.users (email);
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX CONCURRENTLY users_email_uidx ON app.users (lower(email));
CREATE INDEX users_profile_gin ON app.users USING gin (profile);
CREATE INDEX users_created_at_idx ON app.users (created_at DESC);

DML (Insertar / Actualizar / Upsert / Eliminar)

INSERT INTO app.users (email, name) VALUES
  ('a@x.com','A'), ('b@x.com','B')
RETURNING id;

-- Upsert (ON CONFLICT)
INSERT INTO app.users (email, name)
VALUES ('a@x.com','Alice')
ON CONFLICT (email)
DO UPDATE SET name = EXCLUDED.name, updated_at = now();

UPDATE app.users SET active = false WHERE last_login < now() - interval '1 year';
DELETE FROM app.users WHERE active = false AND last_login IS NULL;

Esenciales de consulta

SELECT * FROM app.users ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 20 OFFSET 40; -- paginación

-- Filtros
SELECT * FROM app.users WHERE email ILIKE '%@example.%' AND active;

-- Agregados & GROUP BY
SELECT active, count(*) AS n
FROM app.users
GROUP BY active
HAVING count(*) > 10;

-- Uniones
SELECT o.id, u.email, o.total
FROM app.orders o
JOIN app.users u ON u.id = o.user_id
LEFT JOIN app.discounts d ON d.id = o.discount_id;

-- DISTINCT ON (específico de PostgreSQL)
SELECT DISTINCT ON (user_id) user_id, status, created_at
FROM app.events
ORDER BY user_id, created_at DESC;

-- CTEs
WITH recent AS (
  SELECT * FROM app.orders WHERE created_at > now() - interval '30 days'
)
SELECT count(*) FROM recent;

-- CTE recursivo
WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS (
  SELECT 1
  UNION ALL
  SELECT n+1 FROM t WHERE n < 10
)
SELECT sum(n) FROM t;

Funciones de ventana

SELECT
  user_id,
  created_at,
  sum(total)      OVER (PARTITION BY user_id ORDER BY created_at) AS running_total,
  row_number()    OVER (PARTITION BY user_id ORDER BY created_at) AS rn,
  lag(total, 1)   OVER (PARTITION BY user_id ORDER BY created_at) AS prev_total
FROM app.orders;

JSON / JSONB

-- Extraer
SELECT profile->>'company' AS company FROM app.users;
SELECT profile->'address'->>'city' FROM app.users;

-- Índice para consultas jsonb
CREATE INDEX users_profile_company_gin ON app.users USING gin ((profile->>'company'));

-- Existencia / contención
SELECT * FROM app.users WHERE profile ? 'company';              -- clave existe
SELECT * FROM app.users WHERE profile @> '{"role":"admin"}'; -- contiene

-- Actualizar jsonb
UPDATE app.users
SET profile = jsonb_set(COALESCE(profile,'{}'::jsonb), '{prefs,theme}', '"dark"', true);

Arreglos

-- membresía & contención
SELECT * FROM app.users WHERE 'vip' = ANY(tags);
SELECT * FROM app.users WHERE tags @> ARRAY['beta'];

-- agregar
UPDATE app.users SET tags = array_distinct(tags || ARRAY['vip']);

Tiempo & Fechas

SELECT now() AT TIME ZONE 'Australia/Melbourne';
SELECT date_trunc('day', created_at) AS d, count(*)
FROM app.users GROUP BY d ORDER BY d;

-- Intervalos
SELECT now() - interval '7 days';

Transacciones & Bloqueos

BEGIN;
UPDATE app.accounts SET balance = balance - 100 WHERE id = 1;
UPDATE app.accounts SET balance = balance + 100 WHERE id = 2;
COMMIT; -- o ROLLBACK

-- Nivel de aislamiento
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL REPEATABLE READ;

-- Verificar bloqueos
SELECT * FROM pg_locks l JOIN pg_stat_activity a USING (pid);

Roles & Permisos

-- Crear rol/usuario
CREATE ROLE app_user LOGIN PASSWORD 'secret';
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA app TO app_user;
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA app TO app_user;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA app GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON TABLES TO app_user;

Importar / Exportar

-- Servidor (requiere superusuario o permisos adecuados)
COPY app.users TO '/tmp/users.csv' CSV HEADER;
COPY app.users(email,name) FROM '/tmp/users.csv' CSV HEADER;

-- Cliente (psql)
\copy app.users TO 'users.csv' CSV HEADER
\copy app.users(email,name) FROM 'users.csv' CSV HEADER

Rendimiento & Observabilidad

EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, VERBOSE) SELECT ...;  -- tiempo real

-- Vistas de estadísticas
SELECT * FROM pg_stat_user_tables;
SELECT * FROM pg_stat_statements ORDER BY total_time DESC LIMIT 20; -- requiere extensión

-- Mantenimiento
VACUUM [FULL] [VERBOSE] table_name;
ANALYZE table_name;
REINDEX TABLE table_name;

Habilitar extensiones según sea necesario:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_stat_statements;
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS btree_gin;
CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pg_trgm; -- búsqueda por trigramas

Búsqueda de texto completo (rápido)

ALTER TABLE app.docs ADD COLUMN tsv tsvector;
UPDATE app.docs SET tsv = to_tsvector('english', coalesce(title,'') || ' ' || coalesce(body,''));
CREATE INDEX docs_tsv_idx ON app.docs USING gin(tsv);
SELECT id FROM app.docs WHERE tsv @@ plainto_tsquery('english', 'quick brown fox');

Configuraciones útiles de psql

\pset pager off       -- deshabilitar paginador
\pset null '∅'
\pset format aligned  -- otros: unaligned, csv
\set ON_ERROR_STOP on
\timing on

-- Tamaño de tabla
SELECT relname, pg_size_pretty(pg_total_relation_size(relid)) AS size
FROM pg_catalog.pg_statio_user_tables ORDER BY pg_total_relation_size(relid) DESC;

-- Bloat de índice (aproximado)
SELECT schemaname, relname, indexrelname, idx_scan
FROM pg_stat_user_indexes ORDER BY idx_scan ASC NULLS FIRST LIMIT 20;

Backup / Restauración

# Dump lógico
pg_dump -h HOST -U USER -d DB -F c -f db.dump        # formato personalizado
pg_restore -h HOST -U USER -d NEW_DB -j 4 db.dump

# SQL plano
pg_dump -h HOST -U USER -d DB > dump.sql
psql -h HOST -U USER -d DB -f dump.sql

Replicación (nivel alto)

  • Los archivos WAL fluyen desde primariosecundario
  • Configuraciones clave: wal_level, max_wal_senders, hot_standby, primary_conninfo
  • Herramientas: pg_basebackup, standby.signal (PG ≥12)

Gotchas & Consejos

  • Siempre usa jsonb, no json, para índices y operadores.
  • Prefiere timestamptz (con zona horaria).
  • DISTINCT ON es oro de PostgreSQL para “top-N por grupo”.
  • Usa GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY en lugar de serial.
  • Evita SELECT * en consultas de producción.
  • Crea índices para filtros selectivos y claves de unión.
  • Mide con EXPLAIN (ANALYZE) antes de optimizar.

Cosas específicas de versión (≥v12+)

-- Identidad generada
CREATE TABLE t (id bigINT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY, . ..);

-- Upsert con índice parcial
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ON t (key) WHERE is_active;

Enlaces útiles