is there a way to automate deduplication of strings?

Hello everyone! First time poster here.

I have a question about deduplicating text strings stored in a database. I am aware of the pattern of creating a separate table for unique values, then referencing those values by key. But this requires some transactional complexity for storage and retrieval, along with cleanup of no-longer-referenced values over time. And, this complexity grows with the number of primary-table columns that use this indirection.

I would only use this for (1) seldom-referenced columns that (2) have a high rate of duplication and (3) have an average string length that makes deduplication worthwhile.

Are there any native or extension-based methods to simplify this in Postgres? I searched and came up empty, but maybe I'm not searching with the right terms.

Thanks!


  *   Chris