PostgreSQL Query Catalog

Find the names of database constraints that have been system-generated. Additional restrictions are that the constraints must involve only one column and are associated directly with a table (not through a domain). Names should follow the same style. If there is a mix of system-generated and user-defined names, then the style is most probably different.

Find all CHECK constraints (except NOT NULL) that are associated with a base table or a foreign table column and use a regular expression. It is useful to enforce as many constraints at database level as possible. In this way one improves data quality as well as gives extra information to the database users (including the DBMS engines, development environments, and applications).

Surrogate key values must be generated by using the system (the sequence generator mechanism in case of PostgreSQL). If there is no usage of sequence generators, then there is a question as to whether there are no surrogate keys in the database at all (could be possible and OK) or (more probable) developers have forgotten to implement the generation of surrogate keys.

Find CHECK constraints of base table and foreign table columns that are not valid. These constraints have been created so that the existing data has not been checked against the constraint. It could be deliberate in case of legacy systems that have data quality problems. However, ideally all the data in the table conforms to the constraint.

Find constraints that involve more than one columns. Check as to whether the names follow a common style or not.

Find base table and foreign table constraint names that are used in a database more than once (possibly in different schemas or in case of different types of constraints). Different things should have different names. But here different constraints have the same name. Also make sure that this is not a sign of duplication.

Find table functions that use OFFSET. OFFSET method is a common way for implementing pagination.

Find tables that contain both a state and a status column.

Find tables that contain multiple columns for free-form textual descriptions. Make sure that the names of columns are understandable and sufficiently different. Make sure that there are no duplicate columns.

Find inheritance between base tables. Use table inheritance carefully because, for instance, certain constraints are not inherited and must be redefined on child tables.

Find in case of each base table that participates in a table inheritance hierarchy the path to the table from the top-level table. Use table inheritance carefully because, for instance, certain constraints are not inherited and must be redefined on child tables. Also make sure that the identifier of each child table in an inheritance hierarchy is a hyponym of the identifier of its parent table.

Check as to whether there are no unnecessary privileges.

You should follow the principle of least privilege and thus not have in your database tables that usage privileges are granted to the pseudo-role PUBLIC, i.e., to all the database users now and in the future.

Find table, routine, and usage privileges that have been granted to a superuser. Superuser can do anything in the database and thus does not need the privileges. The result is a sign that perhaps the executed GRANT statements were incorrect (wrong username) or the grantee later got superuser status (that it shouldn't have).

Find information about tables that are associated with triggers.

Do not have in a database elements that are not useful. PostgreSQL permits tables with no columns. Such tables can be used to implement Boolean variables (tables TABLE_DEE and TABLE_DUM). On the other hand, such tables might be a result of database evolution, where developers have not noticed that they have dropped all the columns of a table or have not noticed that they have created such a table in the first place.

Find tables with the same name in different schemas. Make sure that this is not a duplication.

Find base table columns with a check constraint that refers to a temporal function (current_timestamp, localtimestamp, current_date, or now) that return type is inconsistent with the data type of the column.

This query identifies semantic validation gaps in textual columns intended to store structured codes. It targets non-foreign key columns whose identifiers imply a specific format (e.g., containing the word "code"), but which lack adequate constraints to enforce that format. Specifically, it flags columns that have either no CHECK constraints at all, or only trivial constraints that prohibit empty/whitespace strings. Since "codes" typically adhere to a strict pattern (e.g., fixed length, specific character set), relying solely on a non-empty check is considered insufficient for data integrity.

Find indexed textual columns where the indexing does not consider the possibility of pattern-based search. Such columns do not have an index where the used operator class makes the index suitable for use by queries involving pattern matching expressions.