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Kickstart Coding Logo

Kickstart PostgreSQL: Getting Started

Tutorial for setting up PostgreSQL using Heroku.

Who is this guide for

  • This is for brand new SQL programmers, including coding class students who want a simple and to-the-point guide on connecting to a Heroku provisioned Postgres database.

  • This guide assumes you already have fundamental Bash and Heroku knowledge. If you are new to Heroku, read our Heroku Getting Started guide.

  • This guide does not support Windows. It assumes you use either macOS or Ubuntu GNU/Linux.

This was original created for Kickstart Coding, the affordable, inclusive, and intensive coding course teaching cutting-edge Python / Django and JavaScript / React web development in Oakland, CA. Learn more and enroll here.

What is PostgreSQL?

Databases are how computers and web applications store thousands or millions of items of data, and look them up quickly. SQL is the most popular programming language for talking to databases.

Postgres is one of the most popular and powerful databases systems out there, and it uses a dialect of SQL.

Heroku is a hosting service that also provides a "free-tier" version of Postgres that they will run for us.

Key terms

  • database - How web apps store lots and lots of data. In some ways, databases resemble Excel spreadsheets, because they store grids ("tables") of data.

  • SQL - The programming language for talking to databases.

  • Postgres - A popular and powerful database management system ("DBMS") that uses SQL.

Database terminology

Note: See bottom of this guide for an spreadsheet analogy.

  • table - A named collection of data. Consists of series of columns. A database can have multiple tables.

  • column - A named column of data. A table must have 1+ columns.

  • row - A single item of data. Found within tables, and has values (e.g. table data cells) for each column in that table. A table can have 0+ rows, such as one for each user.

(Less) Key Terms

  • Sqlite - A simple, limited version of SQL, that's great for learning and simple applications, but does not work for web apps with multiple users

  • MySQL - Another popular database and SQL dialect (bought by Oracle). MariaDB is a truly free software spin-off of this.

  • MS SQL - Another popular database and SQL dialect (by Microsoft).

  • schema - A common and flexible term that more or less means the shape or layout of your database. In Postgres, also it means a way for a database to further "group together" it's tables (more or less).

  • Heroku (the business) - a company that will run your HTTP server application for you, and expose it to the web. They also offer free Postgres servers, which is what we are using from them.

  • heroku (the CLI command) - A tool that Heroku the company has developed which we will use for interacting with your Heroku account, including creating new Postgres databases.

Guide

Now that you know a little about Postgres, it's time to install the client on your system and get practice connecting to a Heroku hosted version of it.

Installing Postgres client

Ubuntu Linux users, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

macOS users can't install the client separately, so run the following command to install everything:

brew install postgres

Provisioning a Postgres database on Heroku

First you will need to have a Heroku app already created. This can be either a project you are working on, or just a brand new thing. If you don't have an app, you can use heroku create to create one.

  1. Provision for that app a new Postgres Database (free "hobby" tier):
heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev --app pure-crag-68
  1. Connect to your database with the command-line client:
heroku pg:psql --app pure-crag-68

NOTE: For the these last commands, you will need to change "pure-crag-68" to the similarly random name your app got when you created it.

Connecting to your database

Connect to your database with the commandline client:

heroku pg:psql --app pure-crag-68

Practicing SQL

For the second challenge, create the tables necessary to house the following data. Add the data, and practice querying it.

Example code to run with Postgres:

  • Create a new table
CREATE TABLE people (
    idnum int,
    first_name varchar(255),
    last_name varchar(255)
);
  • Check which tables we have
\d
\d people
  • Add data to a table
INSERT INTO people (idnum, first_name, last_name)
VALUES (1, 'Jane', 'Hacker');
  • Check the data in a table
SELECT * FROM people;
  • Challenge: Add data for a person with first name "Dolan" and last name "Duck", and ID number 2. Ensure it is added with SELECT.

Playing with test data

Included in this repo is a SQL file that contains information on the 50 states in the USA, including Puerto Rico and District of Columbia.

  1. Copy & paste that SQL file into your window (or be clever and redirect it into the Postgres prompt using Bash).

  2. View the data:

SELECT * FROM states;

  1. Try using WHERE in conjunction to SELECT to look for states with different characteristics (will have to Google for more information on WHERE). (e.g. Only mid-sized states, with population between 5 and 10 million).

  2. Try using ORDER BY in conjunction to SELECT to sort the output by different orderings. (e.g. Sorted by population, least populated first)

  3. Try using LIMIT to only select the top state that matches a certain ordering and criteria. (e.g. only the most populous state that starts with the letter M).

Extra challenges

  • Look up remaining SQL commands. Get practice with all the different options for SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE.

  • If you have time, look up online tutorials on installing and running Postgres locally (as opposed to Heroku). This is something you may need to do at some point in the future, so doesn't hurt playing around with that now. It isn't too hard, though sometimes can have hang-ups.

SQL Tips

  • Don't forget to end all your SQL statements with ";"! Otherwise it will think you are still adding on to the same statement, and typically result in a syntax error.

  • If you use an ORM, such as Django ORM, it is actually writing and reading the SQL code for you under the hood. Even using an ORM, you will often need to know how to use SQL for certain operations, or at least understand what is happening.

  • All versions (dialects) of SQL are about ~90% the same, so if you learn one, you'll be able to use others.

  • If you are having a hard time understanding DBs, it might help to think of them as kind of like a spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel. This is a very rough analogy, but maybe this will help:

SQL term Excel
database .xlsx file
table worksheet
column column
row row