Re: support for embedded db and a clustered index?

On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Julian Bui <julianbui(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Does pgsql provide support for a clustered index? By that I mean can I
> specify that the database insert records in the order of a particular
> attribute. Many of my queries are time-range based and my row inserts are
> done chronologically, so it would benefit to have them sorted by when they
> were inserted.

Sort of. It supports static clustering. Updates aren't clustered.

> Also, can pgsql be embedded in an application? By that I mean it is easily
> deployable with an application.

Not really the same thing. PostgreSQL is not embeddable in the
classic sense, and if you need an embedded database, look at SQLLite.

> The end user is unaware that a database
> even exists and the end user does not need to install pgsql.

Yes, that's called a silent install.

> I do NOT mean
> a db that runs on an embedded device (although I am hoping pgsql has a small
> memory footprint) and I also do NOT mean to ask if pgsql supports embedded
> sql.

PostgreSQL is not optimized for small memory or disk footprint, it is
optimized for using more memory and being fast and reliable. I think
you might want SQLLite for this job.