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Modeling State Transitions in Postgres

Status starts as a column. Then someone asks “who was denied last Tuesday?” and the schema can’t answer. Model each status change as its own row from the start, without sacrificing read performance.
Thiago Araújo Silva
August 11, 2026
- Databases
- PostgreSQL
- SQL
The TEXTSIZE trap: how TDS silently truncates your binary data in Rails

SQL Server has a session-level setting that silently truncates your binary data before it ever reaches Ruby. It defaults to 4KB. Most drivers fix it automatically. tiny_tds does not.
Trésor Bireke
May 7, 2026
Do you really know how to ORDER BY?

The perils of a seemingly harmless ORDER BY clause.
Thiago Araújo Silva
June 2, 2025
- Rails
- SQL
- PostgreSQL
Sorting elegantly in Rails with in_order_of

Sorting columns in custom order in Rails elegantly using inorderof.
Trésor Bireke
April 28, 2025
- Ruby
- Rails
- SQL
- Performance
- Code
Testing SQL queries in a Ruby service

An epic journey of facing MSSQL and missing Rails.
Sally Hall
December 16, 2024
- SQL
- Testing
- Stories
- Ruby
- Web
Testing SQL Performance in PostgreSQL

Measure query speed with Postgres’ EXPLAIN ANALYZE.
Elisa Verna
December 15, 2023
Joining Postgres tables using arrays of IDs

Some tips on how to do many-to-many SQL queries without a normal join table.
Dave Iverson
December 5, 2023
- Databases
- PostgreSQL
- SQL
- Prisma
- Airtable
3 ways to model an associated collection in Rails

A look at the Postgres array type and good old join tables, each with their advantages and disadvantages.
Dimiter Petrov
November 23, 2023
- Rails
- Databases
- SQL
- PostgreSQL
Sharing Query Logic Within ActiveRecord Models

Re-use collection query logic within model instances to avoid duplication and get the best performance.
Chris Toomey
November 22, 2023
- Rails
- SQL
- Web
Detect anomalies in user behavior using Rails and PostgreSQL

You probably use some type of error monitoring software to notify you when an exception is raised in your application, but are you being notified when there is an anomaly in user behavior?
Steve Polito
September 29, 2022
- PostgreSQL
- SQL
- Analytics
- Rails
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