Column Tetris

Postgres FM

Nikolay and Michael discuss "Column Tetris" — what it is, why it matters, how to order columns for new tables, and how to re-organise existing ones.
Here are some links to things they mentioned:

• “Column Tetris” by Erwin Brandstetter on Stack Overflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2966524/calculating-and-saving-space-in-postgresql/7431468#7431468
• Data Types https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/datatype.html
• OrioleDB beta7 benchmarks https://www.orioledb.com/blog/orioledb-beta7-benchmarks
• pg_hexedit https://github.com/petergeoghegan/pg_hexedit
• Saving Space Basically for Free (blog post by James Coleman from Braintree) https://medium.com/paypal-tech/postgresql-at-scale-saving-space-basically-for-free-d94483d9ed9a
• Ordering Table Columns (GitLab https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/development/database/ordering_table_columns.html
• postgres_dba alignment padding query https://github.com/NikolayS/postgres_dba/blob/master/sql/p1_alignment_padding.sql
• Good explanation from Marco Slot of how alignment was used to fix a recent issue https://x.com/marcoslot/status/1858132850383421570
• pg_repack feature request discussion https://github.com/reorg/pg_repack/issues/101
• Our episode on bloat (with Chelsea Dole) https://postgres.fm/episodes/bloat
• Optimizing table layout for maximum efficiency (blog post by Renato Massaro) https://r.ena.to/blog/optimizing-postgres-table-layout-for-maximum-efficiency

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What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!

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Postgres FM is produced by:

• Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustard
• Nikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.ai

With special thanks to:

• Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork