Before You Start

Target Readers

This document is intended for database designers, application developers, and database administrators, and provides information required for designing, building, querying and maintaining data warehouses.

As a database administrator or application developer, you need to be familiar with:

Knowledge about OSs, which is the basis for everything.
SQL syntax, which is the necessary skill for database operation.

Prerequisites

Complete the following tasks before you perform operations described in this document:

Create a GaussDB(DWS) cluster.
Install a SQL client.
Connect the SQL client to the default database of the cluster.

For details about these tasks, see Getting Started with GaussDB(DWS).

Reading Guide

If you are a new GaussDB(DWS) user, you are advised to read the following contents first:

Sections describing the features, functions, and application scenarios of GaussDB(DWS).
"Getting Started": guides you through creating a data warehouse cluster, creating a database table, uploading data, and testing queries.

If you intend to or are migrating applications from other data warehouses to GaussDB(DWS), you might want to know how GaussDB(DWS) differs from them.

You can find useful information from the following table for GaussDB(DWS) database application development.

Operation	Query Suggestion
Quickly getting started with GaussDB(DWS)	Deploy a cluster, connect to the database, and perform some queries by referring to Getting Started. When you are ready to construct a database, load data to tables and compile the query content to operate the data in the data warehouse. Then, you can return to the Data Warehouse Service Database Developer Guide.
Understand the internal architecture of a GaussDB(DWS) data warehouse.	To know more about GaussDB(DWS), go to the GaussDB(DWS) homepage.
Learn how to design tables to achieve the excellent performance.	GaussDB(DWS) Development Design Specifications introduces the design specifications that should be complied with during the development of database applications. Modeling compliant with these specifications fits the distributed processing architecture of GaussDB(DWS) and provides efficient SQL code. To facilitate service execution through optimization, you can refer to Overview of Query Performance Optimization. Database administrators' experience and judgment play a more significant role in achieving successful performance optimization than instructions and explanations. However, Overview of Query Performance Optimization still tries to systematically illustrate the performance optimization methods for application development personnel and new GaussDB(DWS) database administrators.
Loading data	Importing Data describes how to import data to GaussDB(DWS). Excellent Practices for Data Import provides key points for quick data import.
Managing users, groups, and database security	GaussDB(DWS) Database Security Management covers database security topics.
Monitoring and optimizing system performance	GaussDB(DWS) System Catalogs and Views describes the system catalogs where you can query the database status and monitor the query content and process. You should also refer to Management Guide to learn how to use the GaussDB (DWS) console to check the system running status and monitoring metrics.

SQL Syntax Text Conventions

To better understand how to use the syntax, you can refer to the following description of SQL syntax text conventions.

Format	Description
Uppercase characters	Keywords must be in uppercase.
Lowercase characters	Parameters must be in lowercase.
[ ]	Items in brackets [] are optional.
...	Preceding elements can appear repeatedly.
[ x \| y \| ... ]	One item is selected from two or more options or no item is selected.
{ x \| y \| ... }	One item is selected from two or more options.
[x \| y \| ... ] [ ... ]	You can choose either multiple parameters or no parameters. If you choose multiple parameters, simply separate them with spaces.
[ x \| y \| ... ] [ ,... ]	You can choose either multiple parameters or no parameters. If you choose multiple parameters, simply separate them with commas (,).
{ x \| y \| ... } [ ... ]	You must select at least one parameter. If you select multiple parameters, separate them with spaces.
{ x \| y \| ... } [ ,... ]	You must select at least one parameter. If you select multiple parameters, separate them with commas (,).

Statement

When writing documents, the writers of GaussDB(DWS) try their best to provide guidance from the perspective of commercial use, application scenarios, and task completion. Even so, references to PostgreSQL content may still exist in the document. For this type of content, the following PostgreSQL Copyright is applicable:

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.

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