---
title: "This Week's PostgreSQL News (#139)"
publication: "Postgres Weekly"
issue: 139
published_at: "2016-01-13"
canonical_url: "https://postgresweekly.com/issues/139"
---

Postgres Weekly 139   . 

[Read this on the Web](http://postgresweekly.com/issues/139) 

[Postgres Weekly](http://postgresweekly.com) Issue 139 — January 13, 2016     

[PostgreSQL 9.5 Released](http://www.postgresql.org/about/news/1636/?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)Postgres 9.5’s headline features include UPSERT, row level security, and extra ‘big data’ features like BRIN indexing, improved foreign data wrappers, and TABLESAMPLE, an SQL clause for statistical sampling of large tables. PostgreSQL#news [PGCon 2016 Call for Papers Open (Ottawa, May 19-20)](http://www.pgcon.org/2016/papers.php?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)PGCon, the premiere conference for Postgres hackers, is back. If you’re doing something interesting either down in the core, as an extension, or even as an end user the CFP is open to come and speak. PGCon [Postgres Monitoring](http://dtdg.co/1OhYXXg)Visualize system resources, connections, locks, transactions, and indexes for full-stack, realtime performance correlation. Datadog#sponsored[![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/60b53011.png)](http://dtdg.co/1OhYXXg) [Here's Postgres 9.5: Now Available on Heroku](https://blog.heroku.com/archives/2016/1/7/postgres-95-now-available-on-heroku?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)If you’re looking to take Postgres 9.5 for a spin and down want to spin it up yourself on a server, Heroku has an answer. Supporting 9.5 on its beta release day, a single click can bring you a 9.5-powered database to explore. Heroku#news [PostgreSQL Past, Present, and Future: Moving The Goalposts](http://rhaas.blogspot.com/2016/01/postgresql-past-present-and-future.html?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)A few years back MySQL had a few legs up on Postgres with simple replication setup, upsert… but now that list of missing features is virtually nonexistent. So with Postgres moving not just to feature parity but beyond, here’s some good speculation on what the future might hold. Robert Haas [PostgreSQL 9.6 Wish List](http://blog.databasepatterns.com/2016/01/postgresql-96-wish-list.html?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)Now that 9.5 has been released, it’s time to start speculating about the future. Here’s one developers wish list of what they’d like to see for 9.6 - what’s yours? Neil McGuigan [Writing More Legible SQL](http://www.craigkerstiens.com/2016/01/08/writing-better-sql/?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)Writing SQL is one thing, but when it comes to reading other’s SQL, things can get tricky. These few tips will help to make your SQL much more understandable by others. Craig Kerstiens [Using the Ltree Datatype in Postgres](http://leapfrogonline.io/articles/2015-05-21-postgres-ltree/?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)Nested or hierarchical structures in a database aren’t overly common, and can provide numerous frustrations when you try to implement them, but Postgres has one option that can work quite well: Ltree. Kris Schultz [Using CTEs and Unions to Compute Running Totals](https://www.periscopedata.com/blog/using-ctes-and-unions-to-compute-running-totals.html?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)Here’s a great use that combines CTEs with unions to give not just grouped results, but also side by side results with the overall aggregate. Periscope [Heroku Data Infrastructure Engineer](https://www.heroku.com/careers/104?utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)Join the Heroku Data team and learn about supporting and operating database systems at scale. Heroku#job [Postgres Skills are in demand.](http://www.indeed.com/prime?sid=xp_cooperpress&kw=postgres&utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email)Indeed Prime is an elite new program from Indeed.com that presents in-demand tech talent like you to top employers. Indeed Prime opens the door to exciting career opportunities with one simple application. Join today. Indeed#job    

Postgres Weekly is curated by [Craig Kerstiens](https://twitter.com/craigkerstiens) [Read this issue on the Web](http://postgresweekly.com/issues/139) [See our archives](http://postgresweekly.com/issues) [Change your email address](*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*)  [Stop getting this newsletter](*|UNSUB|*)  

Published by [Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/)
Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Lincoln Way, Louth, LN11 0LS, UK