How to Apply Oracle Best Practices in PostgreSQL

How do I apply Oracle best practices when working in PostgreSQL?

Adopt Oracle-proven design, coding, and tuning conventions inside PostgreSQL to gain predictable performance and maintainable SQL.

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Description

Example H2

Example H3

Why transfer Oracle best practices to PostgreSQL?

Oracle and PostgreSQL are both advanced, ACID-compliant RDBMSs. Techniques that keep Oracle schemas clean—consistent naming, normalized tables, and careful indexing—benefit PostgreSQL the same way, lowering tech debt and easing future cloud or multi-DB strategies.

What naming conventions work in both databases?

Use lowercase, snake_case object names under 30 characters to satisfy Oracle length limits while matching PostgreSQL defaults. Prefix primary keys with id_ and foreign keys with the referenced table, e.g., customer_id, to simplify JOIN readability.

How should I handle datatype differences?

Replace Oracle NUMBER with PostgreSQL NUMERIC(p,s) for money, INTEGER for counters, and BIGINT for large totals. Swap VARCHAR2 for VARCHAR. Use TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE to mirror Oracle's TIMESTAMP TZ.

What numeric and date types map cleanly?

NUMBER(10,0) → INTEGER, NUMBER(19,0) → BIGINT, DATE → TIMESTAMP. Always test rounding rules after conversion.

How do I write portable PL/SQL to PL/pgSQL functions?

Keep business logic in parameterized functions, avoid Oracle-specific packages, and replace %TYPE/%ROWTYPE with explicit column references. Use RAISE NOTICE for debugging instead of DBMS_OUTPUT.

Which indexing strategies remain effective?

Stick to B-tree indexes for equality and range filters just like in Oracle. Avoid over-indexing; PostgreSQL's planner penalizes unused indexes with maintenance overhead.

How can I manage sequences and auto-increment keys?

Convert Oracle sequences + triggers to PostgreSQL GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY. This keeps inserts single-statement and avoids trigger overhead.

What are safe transaction isolation levels?

Oracle defaults to READ COMMITTED. Use the same in PostgreSQL unless your workload needs REPEATABLE READ. Avoid SERIALIZABLE unless contention is minimal.

How do I migrate Oracle triggers to PostgreSQL?

Inline simple audit triggers into ON INSERT/UPDATE PostgreSQL triggers. Rewrite complex row-level logic as functions called from statement-level triggers for better performance.

What performance tuning steps translate well?

Maintain up-to-date statistics, partition large tables by date, and favor bulk operations over row-by-row processing. Monitor long-running queries with pg_stat_activity—the PostgreSQL analogue to Oracle's v$session.

What security practices stay the same?

Use least-privilege roles, separate readers from writers, and enforce SSL connections. Map Oracle GRANT SELECT ON schema.table TO role directly to PostgreSQL’s identical syntax.

How to test and validate after migration?

Run parallel query suites, compare aggregates, and validate counts. Use EXCEPT queries to find mismatched rows between Oracle and PostgreSQL exports.

Why How to Apply Oracle Best Practices in PostgreSQL is important

How to Apply Oracle Best Practices in PostgreSQL Example Usage


-- Bulk load Oracle data, preserve best practices in PostgreSQL
INSERT INTO Orders (customer_id, order_date, total_amount)
SELECT id, NOW(), SUM(price * quantity)
FROM   OrderItems oi
JOIN   Products p ON oi.product_id = p.id
GROUP  BY id;

How to Apply Oracle Best Practices in PostgreSQL Syntax


-- Sequence to identity conversion
-- Oracle
CREATE SEQUENCE orders_seq START WITH 1;
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER orders_bi
BEFORE INSERT ON Orders
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
    :NEW.id := orders_seq.NEXTVAL;
END;
/

-- PostgreSQL equivalent
CREATE TABLE Orders (
    id              BIGINT GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
    customer_id     BIGINT NOT NULL REFERENCES Customers(id),
    order_date      TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
    total_amount    NUMERIC(10,2) NOT NULL
);

-- Indexing carryover example
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_customer_date
    ON Orders(customer_id, order_date DESC);

Common Mistakes

Ignoring datatype precision—mapping Oracle NUMBER to INTEGER can silently truncate decimals. Always match scale with NUMERIC(p,s) or lose financial accuracy.
Keeping trigger-based sequences—Oracle style triggers add latency in PostgreSQL. Switch to IDENTITY columns to cut context switches and simplify DDL.