PostgreSQL Query Catalog

Find as to whether PUBLIC (all current and future users) has TEMPORARY privilege in the database. PUBLIC gets the privilege by default.

Find schemas where PUBLIC has the usage privilege.

This query identifies potential type mismatches by flagging numeric literals enclosed in single quotes. This pattern often triggers unnecessary type casting overhead or indicates a schema design flaw where a textual data type (e.g., VARCHAR) is used to store exclusively numeric data. The recommendation is to either align the data type with the content (e.g., switch to SMALLINT for codes like '1', '2') or ensure the data justifies the textual type by including non-numeric characters. The query explicitly excludes standard SQL error codes found in exception handling routines, as these are syntactically required to be strings.

This query identifies columns of base tables that use a RANGE data type but are configured to permit a NULL lower bound. This highlights ranges that can be "unbounded" on their starting side, which may be unintentional and could impact query logic and data constraints.

This query finds range columns of base tables that are missing a safety check on their starting value. It looks for columns where the start of the range can be set to any value, without rules to ensure that value makes sense. This helps ensure that all ranges have proper limits defined for their starting points.

This query identifies RANGE type columns in base tables that have a NOT NULL constraint on their lower bound and an additional CHECK constraint, but this check does not account for -infinity. This may indicate a "magic number" problem, where a fixed lower limit (e.g., '1900-01-01') is used instead of the more explicit and semantically correct unbounded (-infinity) value.

This query identifies columns of base tables that use a RANGE data type but are configured to permit a NULL upper bound. This highlights ranges that can be "unbounded" on their ending side, which may be unintentional and could impact query logic and data constraints.

This query finds range columns of base tables that are missing a safety check on their ending value. It looks for columns where the end of the range can be set to any value, without rules to ensure that value makes sense. This helps ensure that all ranges have proper limits defined for their ending points.

This query identifies RANGE type columns in base tables that have a NOT NULL constraint on their upper bound and an additional CHECK constraint, but this check does not account for infinity. This may indicate a "magic number" problem, where a fixed upper limit (e.g., '2900-01-01') is used instead of the more explicit and semantically correct unbounded (infinity) value.

Find incorrectly implemented adjacency lists.

Do not cause potentially infinite loops. Recursive rules would fire itself over and over again. Although the system is able to detect these after executing a data modification statement it is better to avoid creating these altogether.

This query identifies recursive triggers, which occur when a trigger's execution performs an operation (such as an UPDATE on the same table) that immediately causes the same trigger to fire again. This creates a potential infinite loop of execution. While PostgreSQL implements a stack depth limit to detect and terminate such runaway processes to prevent a complete system crash, relying on this fail-safe is poor engineering practice. These triggers consume significant system resources before failure and invariably result in aborted transactions. They should be refactored to avoid self-invocation.

This query identifies superfluous CHECK constraints by detecting logical subsumption. It targets columns where a generic validation ensuring the trimmed string is not empty (e.g., trim(column) <> '') is rendered redundant by a more specific constraint that enforces a minimum length on the trimmed string (e.g., char_length(trim(column)) > 0). Since a string with a positive length is inherently not empty, the generic check adds no functional value and should be removed to simplify the schema.

This query identifies redundant CHECK constraints by detecting cases of logical equivalence or subsumption on a single column. For instance, a constraint like description !~ '^[[:space:]]*$' logically subsumes a less comprehensive constraint such as description <> '', rendering the latter superfluous. Eliminating such duplication is a best practice that improves schema clarity, reduces maintenance overhead, and removes logical noise.

This query identifies superfluous CHECK constraints by detecting logical subsumption. It targets columns where a general non-blankness constraint is made redundant by a more specific, format-validating constraint. For instance, if an e_mail column is validated by a format constraint from Set1 (e.g., e_mail LIKE '%@%'), that constraint implicitly ensures the string is not blank. Therefore, any co-existing constraint from Set2 (e.g., e_mail !~ '^[[:space:]]*$') is logically unnecessary and can be removed to reduce schema complexity.

Example. Set1: {e_mail~'[[:alnum:]@]+'; position('@' in e_mail)>0; e_mail LIKE '%@%'} Set2: {e_mail~'\S'; e_mail!~'^[[:space:]]*$'; e_mail!~'^\s*$'} If column e_mail has a constraint from Set1, then it does not need a constraint from Set2.

This query identifies redundant rewrite rules within the database schema. It targets views that are inherently non-updatable (due to the presence of aggregates, joins, or set operations) but are nevertheless defined with a DO INSTEAD NOTHING rule. Since the PostgreSQL engine cannot perform DML operations on such views natively, the view is effectively read-only by definition. Consequently, the explicit rule serves no functional purpose in preventing data modification and represents superfluous schema metadata.

This query identifies INITIALLY DEFERRED constraint triggers that utilize explicit locking mechanisms (e.g., LOCK TABLE, SELECT ... FOR SHARE). Deferred constraints are evaluated at transaction commit time, by which point the database engine automatically manages the necessary data consistency states. Consequently, acquiring manual locks within these triggers is technically redundant. Furthermore, it introduces performance risks by enforcing serialization at the critical end-stage of the transaction, potentially increasing the likelihood of deadlocks and reducing system throughput.

Find indexes that may be redundant. In addition to identical indexes it also considers indexes that cover the same columns and have the same properties except uniqueness. The query considers all types of indexes, including indexes that have been automatically created to support a constraint and function-based indexes.

This query identifies regular expressions that contain superfluous .* constructs at the beginning or end of the pattern. In standard unanchored regular expression matching (as performed by PostgreSQL's ~ operator), the engine checks for the pattern's existence anywhere within the string by default. Therefore, a leading or trailing .* is typically redundant, as it explicitly instructs the engine to do what it would already be doing implicitly. Removing these unnecessary wildcards improves the readability and maintainability of the expression and can, in some cases, lead to better performance by reducing unnecessary backtracking.

This query identifies a logical mismatch in access control lists (ACLs). It flags cases where a role is granted USAGE privilege on a sequence (allowing the generation of values via nextval) but lacks the INSERT privilege on the table associated with that sequence. Since the primary purpose of such a sequence is to generate surrogate keys for new rows, possessing the right to generate IDs without the right to insert rows renders the sequence privilege functionally useless. This violates the principle of least privilege and should be revoked to minimize the attack surface.