10 Things I Learned Solving Advent of Code Puzzles with PostgreSQL
Presented by:
Ryan Booz
Ryan is an Advocate at Redgate focusing on PostgreSQL. Ryan has been working as a PostgreSQL advocate, developer, DBA and product manager for more than 20 years, primarily working with time-series data on PostgreSQL and the Microsoft Data Platform.
Ryan is a long-time DBA, starting with MySQL and Postgres in the late 90s. He spent more than 15 years working with SQL Server before returning to PostgreSQL full-time in 2018. He’s at the top of his game when he's learning something new about the data platform or teaching others about the technology he loves.
Since December 2015, Eric Wastl has been creating 25 daily coding puzzles each year known as The Advent of Code. In 2022, more than 250,000 developers from around the world worked each day to solve the challenges in a language of their choice, including some members of the PostgreSQL community. I decided to join them, knowing it would challenge my skills, knowledge, and understanding of the database I love.
In this talk I’ll discuss 10 things I learned working through the daily challenges, using only PostgreSQL and SQL, without the use of pl/pgsql. The talk will start with an overview of the extract, load, and transform (ELT) pattern using built-in functions to work with data, regardless of the form. Once loaded, I’ll show multiple ways to chain together PostgreSQL functions and SQL commands to analyze the data and solve puzzles. I’ll demonstrate how CTEs, recursive CTEs, arrays, LATERAL CROSS JOINS, string functions, window functions, CASE statements, and more can work together without any procedural code to transform and query unique datasets.
By the end of this session, you will understand how to approach data challenges differently, using the power of PostgreSQL and SQL to work more effectively. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or still learning your way around PostgreSQL, you’ll leave with at least one new tip to help in your next data puzzle.
- Date:
- 2023 April 20 16:50 PDT
- Duration:
- 50 min
- Room:
- Winchester, Main Level
- Conference:
- Silicon Valley 2023
- Language:
- Track:
- Dev
- Difficulty:
- Medium