10+ Best Articles on Databases
The most useful articles on databases from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Databases Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved on databases by Refind users in 2023.
How to ...?
How to think about databases
As a maintainer of PouchDB, I get a lot of questions from developers about how best to work with databases. Since PouchDB is a JavaScript library, and one with fairly approachable documentation (if…
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles on databases—all under 10 minutes.
Column order in PostgreSQL does matter
Column order can determine how quickly your data is processed in PostgreSQL. Find out how to troubleshoot performance problems in wide tables
The best UUID type for a database Primary Key
Learn what UUID type works best for a database Primary Key column and why a time-sorted TSID is more effective than the standard UUID.
Why databases use ordered indexes but programming uses hash tables (evanjones.ca)
I think it is safe to state that hash tables (e.g. maps in Go, dicts in Python, HashMap in Java, etc.) are far more common than ordered data structures such as trees for in-memory data structures. One…
Millions of tiny databases
Millions of tiny databases, Brooker et al., NSDI’20 This paper is a real joy to read. It takes you through the thinking processes and engineering practices behind the design of a key part of …
A one size fits all database doesn't fit anyone
The days of the one-size-fits-all monolithic database are behind us, and developers are using a multitude of purpose-built databases.
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles on databases.
Things You Should Know About Databases
Things You Should Know About Indexes and Transactions. This post covers internal workings of indexes and transactions of RDBMSs.
Build a NoSQL Database From The Scratch in 1000 Lines of Code
Introducing LibraDB, a working database I created using Go
Things I Wished More Developers Knew About Databases
A large majority of computer systems have some state and are likely to depend on a storage system. My knowledge on databases accumulated…
Joins 13 Ways
03 Jul 2023 Relational (inner) joins are really common in the world of databases, and one weird thing about them is that it seems like everyone has a different idea of what they are. In this post I’ve…
Why SQL is beating NoSQL, and what this means for the future of data
After years of being left for dead, SQL today is making a comeback. How come? And what effect will this have on the data community?
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
400k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.