Data compression postgresql

Does Postgres compress data?
PostgreSQL can compress the large field values within the tuple to reduce their size using a compression algorithm that we'll cover later in this article.
By default, if compression is sufficient to bring the tuple's total size below the threshold, the data will remain in the main table, albeit in a compressed format..
How do you compress data in Postgres?
To compress a tablespace, you should enable the compression option when creating this tablespace.
For example: postgres=# CREATE TABLESPACE zfs LOCATION '/var/data/cfs' WITH (compression=true); All tables created in this tablespace will be compressed using zstd, which is the default compression library..
Hardware compression, in tape drives, is done inside the tape drive by a chip that is designed to do lossless data compression and nothing else.
All of the compression labor is done by that chip.
The compressed data is then passed back to the drive for writing to tape.
PostgreSQL uses a fixed page size (commonly 8 kB), and does not allow tuples to span multiple pages.
Therefore, it is not possible to store very large field values directly.
To overcome this limitation, large field values are compressed and/or broken up into multiple physical rows.

Lossless compression is often used when we are trying to store files or data in a smaller space, but we care about that data. Relational and time-series databases (like PostgreSQL and Timescale) almost exclusively use lossless compression to reduce total database size.

Does PostgreSQL support auto-compression?

As I said above, Postgresql has normal balanced default auto-compression, but it’s not always enough.
If you have large tables with many rows and many columns, where each value does not exceed 2 KB, you may face a storage problem, because your data won’t be auto-compressed.

How do I select a compression technique for a column?

The compression technique used for either in-line or out-of-line compressed data can be selected for each column by setting the COMPRESSION column option in CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE.
The default for columns with no explicit setting is to consult the default_toast_compression parameter at the time data is inserted.

How does Postgres pro reduce database size?

Postgres Pro brings the page-compression to postgresql world and uses zstd (from Facebook with love) compression library on Linux and zlib on Windows.
Developers claim that their implementation can reduce database size from 2 to 5 times.
Compressed once the tablespace can’t be decompressed.

Is there a table compression option in PostgreSQL?

There are no options for table compression in PostgreSQL.
Large attributes are compressed automatically, but you don't have any of these.
In addition, PostgreSQL is more wasteful with storage than many other database systems, as it has a row header of 23 bytes.

Postgres Pro Compression

You can find official info about compression on database level here

cstore_fdw Compression

You also can look at cstore_fdw — is an open source columnar store extension for PostgreSQL. it may compress data 6x-10x (according to the developers)

Common Conclusion.

As I said above, Postgresql has normal balanced default auto-compression, but it’s not always enough

How do I specify the compression algorithm for Tast in PostgreSQL?

You can specify the compression algorithm for TOAST in the PostgreSQL instance by configuring the GUC parameter default_toast_compression

You can either modify postgresql

conf or use the SET command to change it for the current client connection (session) only

Is there a table compression option in PostgreSQL?

There are no options for table compression in PostgreSQL

Large attributes are compressed automatically, but you don't have any of these

In addition, PostgreSQL is more wasteful with storage than many other database systems, as it has a row header of 23 bytes

What is LZ4 compression in PostgreSQL 14?

PostgreSQL 14 provides the LZ4 compression option for columns

It results in faster compression compared to the existing PGLZ in TOAST

In this blog post I will describe how to use this option, and compare its performance with other methods

In PostgreSQL, a page is the basic unit to store data, and the size of each page is 8 kB by default

Data compression postgresql

Does Postgres compress data?

How do you compress data in Postgres?

Does PostgreSQL support auto-compression?

How do I select a compression technique for a column?

How does Postgres pro reduce database size?

Is there a table compression option in PostgreSQL?

Postgres Pro Compression

cstore_fdw Compression

Common Conclusion.

How do I specify the compression algorithm for Tast in PostgreSQL?

Is there a table compression option in PostgreSQL?

What is LZ4 compression in PostgreSQL 14?