Summary

In this chapter, we looked at ways in which we can use the functionality of PostgreSQL using arrays, slicing arrays, and unnesting arrays of rows. An array provides great functionality when it comes to using data in multiple ways, or when we have a large chunk of data available with us. We also looked at the JSON datatype, which is useful to store multilevel, dynamically structured object graphs. Additionally, we discussed how to manage XML data and use its functions, which is supported by PostgreSQL. In the last section, we looked at ways to deal with composite types and altering types. Composite types are pretty important as once created they can be referred to by multiple tables, which helps in avoiding the same set of attributes again and again. Also, if we need to alter something in the set of those attributes, we will need to do it once and it will be automatically reflected in the dependent tables.