--- title: "Postgres powering a key UK medical dashboard" publication: "Postgres Weekly" issue: 435 published_at: "2021-12-15" canonical_url: "https://postgresweekly.com/issues/435" --- Plus easier cycle detection in recursive queries in Postgres 14. | #​435 — December 15, 2021 [Web Version](https://postgresweekly.com/issues/435) 🎄 This is the last normal issue of Postgres Weekly for 2021 as we'll be back next week with a special "best of 2021" roundup for you to enjoy :-) See you then. __ _Peter Cooper, your editor_ Postgres Weekly [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/gytyaf3xqdpjizp2w2qq.jpg)](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-database-for-postgresql/uk-covid-19-dashboard-built-using-postgres-and-citus-for/ba-p/3036276) Case Study: [How the UK COVID-19 Dashboard Built on Postgres and Citus Works](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/azure-database-for-postgresql/uk-covid-19-dashboard-built-using-postgres-and-citus-for/ba-p/3036276) — If you like deep diving case studies, this is for you. The UK government’s Health Security Agency has been proactive in sharing data about the COVID-19 pandemic with its citizens, and Postgres (running on Azure’s Postgres and Citus service) is at the heart of its popular dashboard powered by billions of rows of frequently updated data. There’s a _lot_ to take in here. Claire Giordano (Microsoft) [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/e19be9b6.png)](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/lp/serverless?&utm_source=cooperpress&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_campaign=serv-brand-serv-launch-beta&utm_content=lp-only-bug-newsletter-1215&utm_term=prosp-cooperpress-postgres-weekly-1215) [The World’s Most Evolved SQL Database](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/lp/serverless?&utm_source=cooperpress&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_campaign=serv-brand-serv-launch-beta&utm_content=lp-only-bug-newsletter-1215&utm_term=prosp-cooperpress-postgres-weekly-1215) — Elastic scale doesn’t have to mean sacrificing consistency or familiarity. Get effortless scaling, automated ops, and guaranteed transactional consistency with CockroachDB Serverless, the only bug you’ll ever love. CockroachDB Serverless sponsor 📅 [Citus Con: An Event for Postgres in 2022](https://www.citusdata.com/cituscon/2022/) — The Microsoft Azure team is running a free online developer event next April (_so you’ve got some time to plan_) and, currently most importantly, they are [looking for speakers.](https://sessionize.com/cituscon2022/) You have until February 6, 2022 to get your talk proposal sent in. Citus Data [The `SEARCH` and `CYCLE` Features in Postgres 14](https://aiven.io/blog/explore-the-new-search-and-cycle-features-in-postgresql-14) — PG14 introduced two SQL standard features for working with recursive queries. `SEARCH` lets you specify depth or breadth-first searching and the columns to track for sorting, whereas `CYCLE` lets you specify columns to track for cycle detection. There’s more on these in the [official recursive queries docs.](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/14/queries-with.html#QUERIES-WITH-RECURSIVE) Francesco Tisiot [Extracting and Substituting Text with Regular Expressions](https://blog.crunchydata.com/blog/extracting-and-substituting-text-with-regular-expressions-in-postgresql) — Admittedly I’m a huge regex fan, but even if you’re not, this post looking into things you can do with regexes in Postgres includes a quick refresher. Paul Ramsey [Postgres vs Python for Data Cleaning: A Guide](https://blog.timescale.com/blog/postgresql-vs-python-for-data-cleaning-a-guide/) — Before you analyze data, you might want to clean it up a bit, and often you might turn to a language like Python to do this. But Postgres (and TimescaleDB) can be used to do more than you might think. Miranda Auhi (Timescale) [The Fastest Way to Load Data Into Postgres from Rails](https://pganalyze.com/blog/fastest-way-importing-data-into-postgres-with-ruby-rails) — A look at four approaches from inserting one record at a time (not fast, unsurprisingly) through to custom copy approaches (faster), or using a background job (a lot faster). Eze Sunday Eze [The Difference Between `WHERE` and `HAVING` in SQL](https://sql-bits.com/the-difference-between-where-and-having/) — It’s all about the time they come into play. Federico Razzoli [A Complete PostgreSQL Solution, Tuned for Peak Performance](https://www.percona.com/solutions/postgresql-with-percona-better-together?utm_campaign=postgresql-with-percona-better-together&utm_source=postgresweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter-mountain) Percona sponsor [A Look Inside Postgres's Extended Query Protocol](https://www.highgo.ca/2021/12/10/a-look-inside-postgresqls-extended-query-protocol/) — A technical look at an area of Postgres you _probably_ don’t need to know about.. but if you like looking under the hood, knowing that Postgres’s wire protocol supports two types of query may be of interest. Cary Huang [Creating Views with Postgres and TypeORM](https://wanago.io/2021/12/06/views-postgresql-typeorm/) — [TypeORM](https://typeorm.io/) is a popular ORM that supports the Active Record and Data Mapper patterns and can be used from Node. Marcin Wanago [PGX 0.2.x: Build Postgres Extensions with Rust](https://github.com/zombodb/pgx) — A framework for building Postgres extensions with _Rust_ rather than the C or C++ you might be more used to. It now supports Postgres 14 too. ZomboDB [PostGIS 3.2.0 Release Candidate 1 Released](http://postgis.net/2021/12/10/postgis-3.2.0rc1/) PostGIS Developers **Got a new email?** You can [change your address here](https://postgresweekly.com/edit_subscription/*|UID|*). --- **Bored of us?** [Click here to stop getting Postgres Weekly](https://postgresweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*). --- **Got a link for us?** Reply and tell us. We can't include everything but we'll look at anything you send. Thanks! --- Published by Cooper Press Ltd. Fairfield Enterprise Centre, Louth, LN11 0LS, United Kingdom Postgres, PostgreSQL and the Slonik Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of the PostgreSQL Community Association of Canada. [Stop getting this newsletter.](https://postgresweekly.com/leave/*|UID|*)