PostgreSQL Essential Reference [Paperback]

Barry Stinson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735711216 | ISBN-13: 978-0735711211 | Publication Date: October 25, 2001 | Edition: 1

PostgreSQL Essential Reference is a reference book for developers and system administrators who are already familiar with SQL database concepts but that need clear and concise documentation that is specific to PostgreSQL.
The book is divided into 3 parts; Basic SQL Reference, PostgreSQL specifics, and PostgreSQL administration. On a whole, it provides a command, the syntax, available options, description, and example code. Readers will be able to easily utilize the code and concepts into their use f the product.
An added advantage to this book is that provides all reference material in two ways; alphabetically and by task. This is important because readers of the book will be looking for this information by both methods.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

PostgreSQL Essential Reference is a reference book for developers and system administrators who are already familiar with SQL database concepts but that need clear and concise documentation that is specific to PostgreSQL.
The book is divided into 3 parts; Basic SQL Reference, PostgreSQL specifics, and PostgreSQL administration. On a whole, it provides a command, the syntax, available options, description, and example code. Readers will be able to easily utilize the code and concepts into their use f the product.
An added advantage to this book is that provides all reference material in two ways; alphabetically and by task. This is important because readers of the book will be looking for this information by both methods.

About the Author

Barry Stinson , a charter member of his local LUG (lafix.org), is an active participant in the open source community. He is a day-to-day developer for PostgreSQL and he is currently the lead developer on the qikFax project, a linux fax server product, at sourceforge, (qikfax.sourceforge.net). Barry currently runs his own consulting company, Silicon Consulting Company, in Louisiana. His local clients include law firms, doctor offices, and various finance companies. Recently, he was given the task of replacing an existing database system, Microsoft's SQL Server, with PostgreSQL. Since the migration was completed over a year ago, there has been a marked improvement in system stability and the reduction of downtime.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (October 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735711216
• ISBN-13: 978-0735711211
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,679,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hardcopy of on-line docs, June 29, 2003

By 

Jim C. Nasby (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PostgreSQL Essential Reference (Paperback)

There's very little in the way of new information in this book; it's essentially a hard-copy of the on-line reference manual. Some people will find that valuable, but others won't. Buyer beware.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Really Useful Reference, October 31, 2001

By 

Richard P. Welty (Averill Park, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: PostgreSQL Essential Reference (Paperback)

This book came along at exactly the right time for me; i had learned PostgreSQL from Momjian's PostgreSQL: Introduction and Concepts. it wasn't bad, but ran out of steam on a couple of key points, such as stored procedures and triggers. while positioned as a reference, PostgreSQL Essential Reference also serves to nicely fill in the gaps.
Particularly welcome are the sections which address administration, performance tuning, and programming APIs.
The one oddity is that in spots, the book veers away from being a pure reference, and provides examples. if you happen to be looking for those particular examples, then this is not unwelcome, but it is curious to see what rated examples and lightweight tutorials (for example, stored procedures and triggers) and what didn't (the use of timestamp and interval types.)

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I have used this book over a month and I like it., November 18, 2001

By 

INDREK JÄRV (Tallinn, Estonia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PostgreSQL Essential Reference (Paperback)

With help "INDEX" I can find necessary command
and small example about it in few seconds.

There is so much information on those 371 pages:
data types, operators, all functions with short examples,
admin utils and common administration tasks (backup, restore, users, rights),
server-side programming overview (PL/pgSQL, PL/Tcl, PL/Perl),
client-side programming overview (Perl,Python, PHP, ODBC, ...),
complete SQL command reference etc.
Lots of small examples.
If you need instruction how to use syslog for logging? Log rotating?
You find the answer very quickly.
Short, but interesting overview - PostgreSQL versus other RDBMs.
It's a small book, but there is a lot of good information inside :)
I use this book in my work and I recomend it.
Excelent PostgreSQL reference. Professional work.