Session
BackHacking with PostgreSQL for fun and not so much profit
Date: 2018-09-07
Time: 20:30 - 21:20
Room: Mission
Level: Advanced
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In this presentation with live working demo I will show advanced usage of Postgres PL/pgSQL stored procedures. The set of procedures work on concordance and implement dynamic programming with decision tree pruning in an attempt to solve a popular game (Wordament) in few seconds range. I will show how to parallelize the algorithm using multiple sessions inside the database and prove that the parallel solution scales linearly. This is a fun project (hacking a game) but applied techniques can be deployed in real life to approach real problems. This example proves that long gone are the days of PostgreSQL being a mere data store. Now the power of the stored procedures can be unleashed to solve real life challenges inside SQL engine close to the data and thus making PostgreSQL server a powerful computational environment.