Customer Reviews

Beginning Databases with PostgreSQL: From Novice to Professional

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book serves two audiences. One is those seeking to learn SQL. The other is those wanting to learn Postgresql. Naturally there is some overlap. But consider the first group. There are indeed several good texts on the theory of relational databases and using SQL to access and change these tables. But the books often deal at an abstract level that does not use a specific SQL implementation. Which makes it very hard to learn SQL. As a practical matter, you need to commit to an implementation, even just as a pedagogic decision. Well, as the authors explain, Postgresql is a good choice. It conforms broadly to SQL92 and is free open source. (The only other major free alternative being MySQL.) After all, you typically can't get onto a free copy of Oracle 10g or IBM's dB2 to learn from.

So just from this standpoint, the book gives you a solid learning experience with SQL. Eminently transportable to a job involving a proprietary SQL, like those mentioned above. Of course, those have unique tweaks. But the methods described here are universal to the field.

Now what if you want to actually learn Postgresql? There are chapters on using it from the command line and so on. The book also devotes a chapter each to getting at Postgresql from C, PHP, Perl, Java and C#. Typically, you are unlikely to need all of these chapters. But it shows the flexibility of the database.

This book would be better labeled "Beginning Databases with Postgresql - From Novice to Amateur with a few Provisos."

This book is good for getting you to the stage where you have some basic confidence in using PostgreSQL (an excellent database). Do NOT expect to be able to learn what it is you are learning Postgres for without a great deal of googling, hanging out on the #postgresql irc channel (hint: type ?? and topic, VERY useful), searching the mailing list archives, reading the online documentation (which is very useful), and of course, liberal use of \? and \h in psql.

After you have some basic familiarity with Postgres you will still use Matthew and Stones from time to time, looking up syntax etc. For that it is useful.

One of the most annoying things is that it promotes bad database design through the "bpsimple" and "bpfinal" sample databases. Anyone using such a database would be constantly having to clean out garbage data in their database. Take for example their customer table. Their only unique constraint is the primary key, customer_id. If they don't have either a multiple column primary key or some other unique constraint, they will constantly be getting duplicate customers.

At least when I was learning MS Access the books I used taught me good principles such that I am not having to deal with duplicate values years later.

Unfortunately due to the dearth of Postgresql books this is still one of the better offerings. I would give it 3 stars if there was more competition.

Despite the fact that many books claim to be for everyone from the beginner to the professional this book is one of the few that actually hits the mark. Not content to just dive right into PostgreSQL and how to us it, the authors include a lot of database history and theory that is sadly lacking from similar books. But it is not just for beginners. The authors include more advances sections on things like accessing the database using C, PHP, Perl, Java, and C#.

Between this beginning user and advanced user level the authors fill in all the intermediate parts so the book ends up providing a well-organized education from the principles of database design through database setup, query, ODBC access setup, and using a programming or scripting language to accessing and updating the database. The book also includes detailed information on selection procedures, data manipulation, functions, stored procedures, triggers, and PostgreSQL Administration. As a result you end up with a book where the database theory applies to all relational databases and as it becomes more technical in nature it moves from there to information specific to PostgreSQL for the advanced user, administrator, or programmer. Beginning Databases with PostgreSQL, Second Edition is highly recommended to anyone interested in using this particular SQL engine.

I ordered this book because amazon.com bundled it with « Beginning PHP and PostgreSQL 8 ». I must admit I was happily surprised. It's definitely more than a copy of the PostgreSQL manual. Explanations are simple to understand.

There's a chapter on database design, something really important to me.

Something that surprises me too is the big part on languages. The PostgreSQL manual focused on C with libpq and there's not much on other languages. This book brings a lot of informations with PHP, Perl, Java, C#.

This book also brings informations on new PostgreSQL 8 functionnalities (tablespace, $$ quoting). Unfortunately, there's nothing on release 8.1 (CREATE ROLE for example).

Finally, a great book to begin with, a reference for the rest of us.

This isn't really a bad book, but given the clarity with which PostgreSQL's official (and free) documentation is written, a lot of it also isn't necessary. Sure, it's really thick, but a lot of those pages are dedicated to really ugly screenshots and Windows-specific silliness I'm willing to bet few members of this product's target audience are particularly interested in. There are also entire chapters dedicated to C# and Java APIs which should probably be separate books if they really wanted to do justice to such topics--their inclusion here just feels like pointless filler.

If you have absolutely no idea what SQL is and want to get your feet wet with Postgres, then this is absolutely the book for you. If you have a pretty good idea what you're doing and just want to pick up on some of Postgres' quirks, I'm not too sure you'll be getting your money's worth here. It just tries to cover way too much ground too quickly, and the information ends up getting stretched a little thin.

This book teaches a huge amount of information on building PostgreSQL databases. It teaches some theory/history behind many features and can be read straight-through unlike other books I have tried for learning SQL. I am learning about the capabilities/concepts much of Databases more then I have with other beginner books I have read, with none of the try our 5 examples BS to figure out what we are trying to explain...

It also introduces many more advanced ideas and does not hesitate to recommend resources (including free ones) for learning more while it goes on to the next concept.

Definitely recommend if you have no-beginner knowledge of Databases and want a thorough introduction that will give you a sound basis for making a database application.

This book will get you started quickly and painlessly, regardless of your previous experience with other SQL engines.

For complete beginners there is a short but sound chapter on general database design. If you are migrating from "some other open source relational database system", this book will teach you the basic peculiarities of PostgreSQL and get your server up and running in the shortest possible time.

This book is not a "complete refence", nor does it pretend to be. And that's fine. After you've got a basic overview, you can get the rest referring to the online documentation.

P.S. There is a syntax reference in the end of the book, of course :).

This is a very enjoyable book, not meant as a reference manual, but as a way of learning the subject. I cant vouch for it being complete, but I did enjoy the explanations. It explains many of the concepts of relational databases through simple clear language.
If you've been in the database world a long time and you want to see what's specific to Postgres then this might not be your book, but if you have dabbled in databases and you want to consolidate your knowledge then this is a very good book to learn from.
Update:
I have had this book for almost a year now, and still like it as much as at the start. Not that I use it every day. I've also looked at the official PostgreSQL doc and found that it's got too much detail if you are starting out, but it doesnt have as many links as I would like, so this book fills the need as an introduction
to the various aspects of Postgres very nicely. It's the kind of book you can read when you dont have a computer handy.
The official doc is of course necessary, but serves a different role.

This is an excellent book because it is illustrated by the author thinking that you are new in the language.

There are some production problems with the book. But overall it's a fine introduction to Postgres. This isn't a general introduction as the title seems to imply. This text, graphics, and examples, all clearly relate to Postgres.

The book is fairly code heavy. With example of the use of Postgres in all of the popular languages. And a hefty amount of SQL examples to learn from and use.

A solid introductory walkthrough for anyone new to, or just starting to use Postgres.