In SQL, generated columns automatically calculate their values using data from other fields in the same table. This can help ensure data consistency, improve query performance, and simplify our database design in general. The SQL standard contains two types of generated columns. Virtual generated columns With virtual generated columns, we avoid using additional disk storage. […]
Most of our SQL tables contain the ID column, which acts as a primary key and uniquely identifies each row. Historically, the most common way of defining them in PostgreSQL was with the serial type. However, nowadays, the official documentation advises against them. In this article, we compare the serial type and its alternative, the […]
With PostgreSQL’s full-text search feature, we can quickly find documents that contain a particular word or phrase. It can also sort the results to show the most relevant matches first. In this article, we learn how to implement it with the Drizzle ORM, PostgreSQL, and NestJS. Column types used with the text-search feature To implement […]
As our database grows, focusing more on its performance is important. SQL indexes act as guides within the database, helping to speed up data retrieval. In this article, we cover how to create indexes using PostgreSQL, Drizzle ORM, and NestJS and explain what indexes are. Why we might need indexes In the previous parts of […]
Sometimes, in our application, we would like to define a specific duration of time. We could represent it as a number of seconds, for example. However, we might want to be more flexible and be able to use various units, such as minutes, hours, days, or weeks. In this article, we learn how to achieve […]
Debugging is a great way to find issues when running an application locally. Unfortunately, we don’t have this option in a deployed application. Because of that, implementing logging functionality is necessary to track down and investigate any potential problems. In this article, we learn how to use the logger built into NestJS and integrate it […]
Unit tests play a significant role in ensuring the reliability of our NestJS application. In this article, we’ll explain the concept behind unit testing and learn how to apply it to a NestJS application with the Drizzle ORM. Introduction to unit tests Unit tests allow us to verify that individual parts of our codebase function […]
Writing tests for our application helps ensure it works as intended and is reliable. So far, we have written unit tests for our NestJS application that uses the Drizzle ORM. Unit tests help us check if a particular class of a single function functions properly on its own. While unit tests are important, they are […]
All rows in our database need unique identifiers, typically a sequence of numbers. Alternatively, we can use Universally Unique Identifiers (UUID). In this article, we explore the pros and cons of UUIDs and show how to implement them in a project that uses NestJS, PostgreSQL, and the Drizzle ORM. Introducing UUIDs At this point, we’re […]
It’s not uncommon for a single table to be related to multiple similar tables. A good example is a comment the user can write under a photo, an article, or an audio file. A possible approach would be to create a separate table for each type of comment, such as PhotoComment or ArticleComment. Unfortunately, this […]
