Things which Postgres does better than SSMS / T-SQL

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A detailed comparison of PostgreSQL and Microsoft's T-SQL for SSMS Part three of a four-part series of blogs
Even though Microsoft's SQL Server Management Studio and PostgreSQL use the same underying language (SQL), the user interface and dialects are quite different at times, as this blog explains. A detailed comparison of PostgreSQL and Microsoft's T-SQL for SSMS Things which SSMS and/or T-SQL does better Things which Postgres does better than SSMS / T-SQL (this blog) Things which are just different between PostgreSQL and T-SQL / SSMS

A detailed comparison of PostgreSQL and Microsoft's T-SQL for SSMS

Part three of a four-part series of blogs

Even though Microsoft's SQL Server Management Studio and PostgreSQL use the same underying language (SQL), the user interface and dialects are quite different at times, as this blog explains.

A detailed comparison of PostgreSQL and Microsoft's T-SQL for SSMS
Things which SSMS and/or T-SQL does better
Things which Postgres does better than SSMS / T-SQL (this blog)
Things which are just different between PostgreSQL and T-SQL / SSMS

Posted by Andy Brown on 06 March 2026

In this blog

Simpler and better data types
Postgres has a wider range of functions
There's less need for casting
Better text comparison tools
Intervals (and ages)

A quick summary of this page would be that PostgreSQL makes writing SQL both a bit simpler, and also a bit more powerful.

Simpler and better data types

Here are 3 specific ways in which PostgreSQL makes it easier to work with data types. The first is that PostgreSQL stores all text in Unicode format, so you don't have this T-SQL dilemma (although to be fair to SQL Server, varchar fields have allowed Unicode characters since SQL Server 2019, which I must admit I hadn't realised):

T-SQL field type	What it means
nvarchar(n)	A column holding up to n Unicode characters
varchar(n)	A column holding up to n normal text characters

With PostgreSQL there is only varchar. However PostgreSQL also makes life easier is by recommending nice, simple data types:

Data type	Holds
text	Strings of text
integer	Whole numbers
numeric	Any other numbers

And a third way in which PostgreSQL tries to make your life easier is by having a defined boolean data type, instead of the messy T-SQL bit:

The still_active column has boolean data type, which doesn't exist in SSMS.

Postgres also has a wider range of data types than SQL for more niche uses.

Postgres has a wider range of functions

It's not a huge difference, but PostgreSQL definitely gives more power to your querying elbow. To use one example, it includes a useful split_part function:

split_part ( String of text, Delimiter to use, Number of item to extract )

So for example you could pick out the 3rd word in a list much more easily in PostreSQL than in T-SQL:

This would be much harder to do in Transact SQL.

There's less need for casting

Postgres does far more (useful) implicit conversions of data types, to avoid you having to do this explicitly. To give one example, consider this query to concatenate text and numbers together:

Postgres automatically converts the run time minutes into text before concatenating it.

By contrast, here's the equivalent query in SSMS:

The equivalent query in SSMS gives an error.

To get the SSMS query to work you'd have to convert the number to text (or use the CONCAT function, which also exists in PostgreSQL):

-- show film title and length

SELECT

f.title + ' (' +

CAST(f.run_time_minutes AS varchar(max))

+ ' minutes)'

FROM

film AS f

There are lots of cases where Postgres converts data types automatically for you when SSMS won't.

Better text comparison tools

Postgres is much better for wildcards. Firstly, it contains the useful ilike to relax case sensitivity:

This query wouldn't return any rows if you changed ilike to like.

It is possible to manage case sensitivity in SSMS, but it is much less straightforward!

Postgres also allows you to use regular expressions:

The ^ operator allows matching to a regular expression.

And on top of all this, Postgres has the alternative SIMILAR TO syntax:

This would show films beginning with either Shrek or Rush Hour, for example.

Out of the above differences, it's the keyword ilike which will make life easier for the average SQL user.

Intervals (and ages)

PostgresSQL includes a concept of the interval between two specific dates using time intelligence:

The difference above is showing as an interval (a specific period of time between two specific dates).

This leads to the inclusion of an age function:

At this point SSMS SQL users might like to pause to wipe the tears of frustration from their keyboards ...

I think all of the above examples show that the ethos of PostgreSQL is more towards making things slightly less techie, and slightly easier to use.

Parts of this blog
A detailed comparison of PostgreSQL and Microsoft's T-SQL for SSMS Things which SSMS and/or T-SQL does better Things which Postgres does better than SSMS / T-SQL (this blog) Things which are just different between PostgreSQL and T-SQL / SSMS

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Simpler and better data types

Postgres has a wider range of functions

There's less need for casting

Better text comparison tools

Intervals (and ages)

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