Analytic column storage for PostgreSQL, built as a native table access method.

Read the documentation at commandprompt.github.io/pgcolumnar

A table created `USING pgcolumnar` stores its data by column, with per-column compression, chunk-group skipping, and a vectorized aggregate path. It is for analytic workloads: large scans, aggregates, and column projections over append-mostly data. pgColumnar builds from one source tree on PostgreSQL 15 through 18, with 19 validated against 19beta2, and is licensed under the [MIT License](LICENSE). It is [pre-release](docs/limitations.md#release-status); the version marker is `1.0-alpha3`, recorded in `VERSION`. That version is in development and not tagged; the latest published pre-release is `v1.0-alpha2`. A table `USING pgcolumnar` is stored in the native on-disk format, PGCN v1. ## Documentation The full documentation is published at **[commandprompt.github.io/pgcolumnar](https://commandprompt.github.io/pgcolumnar/)**. The same pages are in this repository under `docs/`: | | | | --- | --- | | [Features](docs/features.md) | What pgColumnar provides | | [Installation](docs/installation.md) | Build, load, and create the extension | | [User guide](docs/user-guide.md) | Create tables, load data, and query | | [Administration](docs/administration.md) | Operate columnar tables in production | | [Configuration](docs/configuration.md) | Settings and per-table options | | [SQL reference](docs/sql-reference.md) | The `pgcolumnar.*` functions | | [Limitations](docs/limitations.md) | Compatibility and known constraints | | [Benchmarks](docs/benchmarks.md) | Size and latency numbers | | [Testing](docs/testing.md) | The test suite and version matrix | | [Changelog](CHANGELOG.md) | Notable changes | | [Architecture](docs/ARCHITECTURE.md) | Source map for developers | ## Quick start Build with PGXS against the target server, add the library to `shared_preload_libraries`, and restart: ```sh make PG_CONFIG=/path/to/pg_config make install PG_CONFIG=/path/to/pg_config ``` ``` shared_preload_libraries = 'pgcolumnar' ``` Then, in a database: ```sql CREATE EXTENSION pgcolumnar; CREATE TABLE events (id bigint, ts timestamptz, kind int, payload text) USING pgcolumnar; INSERT INTO events SELECT g, now(), g % 8, 'p' || g FROM generate_series(1, 1000000) g; SELECT count(*), avg(kind) FROM events WHERE kind = 3; ``` See the [installation guide](docs/installation.md) for requirements and the [user guide](docs/user-guide.md) for loading and querying. ## Independence pgColumnar is an independent implementation. It is not derived from the source of any other columnar project. Its on-disk format, its metadata catalog and its SQL interface come from published column-store research and from the open Apache Arrow, Parquet and ORC specifications. They are recorded in [design/NATIVE_FORMAT_AND_INTERFACE_SPEC.md](design/NATIVE_FORMAT_AND_INTERFACE_SPEC.md). The implementation is built from that specification and the public PostgreSQL API, by the clean-room method described in [PROVENANCE.md](PROVENANCE.md). ## License MIT. See [LICENSE](LICENSE).