Could you briefly introduce yourself?

I'm a database programmer and consultant living in New York City.

Have you enjoyed previous pgconf.eu conferences, either as attendee or as speaker?

I have spoken and PgConf US 4 times starting in 2014, PostgresOpen SV 2017, and a few pg-day events (NYC and Austin TX). This is my first conference outside of the US.

What will your talk be about, exactly? Why this topic?

It is about psql, the limitations of psql, new features that have been added to psql, and how to work around those limtations in earlier versions.

I chose the topic because I often find myself with a task that is 99% SQL but it has just one step that requires something that can't easily be done in a "normal" sql script. I could choose a language like python to encapsulate each statement, but the act of seeing SQL through that other language's syntax makes it harder to understand the code.

Also, I often have clients who do not want another language added to their technology stack. Sometimes the reason is regulatory, sometimes it is just to not have to add that new language to their skill set.

What is the audience for your talk?

People who have written applications that mostly just glued together SQL statements, and wish they could have done it some other way.

People who have had to write maintenance scripts in SQL, and wished "psql could just do this one thing".

People who changed psql to be able to "do this one thing", and want to hear me mispronounce their name.

What existing knowledge should the attendee have?

Anyone who has written a maintenance task in SQL, or expects to do so in the near future.