Most database administrators and developers learned to use PostgreSQL as their first SQL dialect when it became popular over the years. There are many types of databases, not just one type of database, such as MySQL.

If you’re planning on moving to the MySQL database, you need to be aware of the challenges posed by PostgreSQL. It’s important to understand the challenges before you start your migration.

History

In 1982, computer engineer Michael Stonebraker began developing Postgres, a replacement for an earlier database system and the precursor of PostgreSQL. David Axmark and Michael Widenius created MySQL as an updated version of mSQL, a worldwide database management system.

MySQL AB, a Swedish company, was founded in 1995 to further develop the language. Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL AB in 2008, becoming the consensus under which the patent for MySQL would be used from then on. In 2010, Oracle became the new owner of MySQL through their acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

MySQL runs on most system platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and IBM i. MySQL’s 25 years of use have produced several changes; its latest version is 8.0. According to Stack Overflow, MySQL is the most widely used database system by specialists and amateurs alike.

PostgreSQL vs. MySQL

PostgreSQL and MySQL are database systems that use the same standard SQL query language. MySQL differs from PostgreSQL in that it is based on the SQL language, while PostgreSQL is based SQL dialects are a type of programming language. In linguistics, dialects are usually mutually understandable.

Data Types

PostgreSQL and MySQL share the fundamental SQL data types such as INTEGER, TEXT, and VARCHAR, yet they do differ in some details:

– The built-in BIT data type is exclusive to PostgreSQL but is not yet present in the MySQL language. You can use the BIT type or the TINYINT type instead. MySQL automatically converts the BOOL type to the TINYINT(1) table when applied to a SQL statement.

– The INT type in MySQL and PostgreSQL is named INTEGER. However, PostgreSQL also accepts the aliases INT and INT4.

– Both PostgreSQL and MySQL furnish the types DATE and TIME to manage date and time individually. However, in checking database types, PostgreSQL contains TIMESTAMP and MySQL contains DATETIME or TIMESTAMP.

– PostgreSQL utilizes REAL and DOUBLE PRECISION (4 and 8 bytes, respectively) to handle floating numbers, while MySQL uses FLOAT and DOUBLE for this purpose.

– MySQL uses the type SMALLINT for signed two-byte integers, whereas PostgreSQL additionally provides the type TINYINT for one-byte integers.