Re: Moving from SQL Anywhere to PostGres - First Time

On 2011-01-20, Robert Paresi <firstname(at)lastname(dot)net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We have 700 user install base using Sybase SQL Anywhere 9.02
>
> We are looking at migrating these installations over to PostGres

> 1. Very Very Short Answer Please - why should we?

postgres is the best database in the universe. :)

> 2. Does anyone have a utility or migration application to read SQL Anywhere
> to go to PostGres

sed ? Any stock utility is likely to make choices that are sub optimal for
your needs. with 700 changeovers pending I would want complete control over
how each column is handled.

> 3. Does PostGres handle column descriptions (ie: you can give each column a
> 50 character description) and then access it via SQL Result Set (like I can
> do in Sybase)

you can put descriptions on columns, I have not hit a length limit.
(probably several megabytes like other text fields).

Getting descriptions in the same same result set as column data is probably
impractical (see length limit for a possible reason why this has not been
implemented). fetching them separately en-masse and caching them or fetching
or individually afterwards should not be greatly difficult, resultsets are
returned with the column and table indicated.

> 4. Is there any Date/TimeStamp issues and conversions I need to know about.
> I use simply a DATE field and a TIME field - but do not use DATE/TIME stamp
> fields together.

time goes upto 24:00:00.999999 just incase you come across a day that long.
so unless that's going to cause problems there should be no issues.
the range supported by date is starts in pre-history and continues
for a few million years into the future.

> 5. What UI/Developer tools (GUI) are available to manage the database as
> well as add/change columns rather than doing it via SQL commands.

I hear there are several, But I can't understand why someone would want to
perform non-graphical tasks using a GUI.

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