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Practical PostgreSQL (O'Reilly Unix) (Paperback)

~ Command Prompt Inc (Editor), (Author), Joshua D. Drake (Author)

2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Arguably the most capable of all the open source databases, PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system first developed in 1977 by the University of California at Berkeley. In spite of its long history, this robust database suffers from a lack of easy-to-use documentation. Practical PostgreSQL fills that void with a fast-paced guide to installation, configuration, and usage. This comprehensive new volume shows you how you to compile PostgreSQL from source, create a database, and configure PostgreSQL to accept client-server connections. It also delves into the many advanced features of the application, including support for transactions, versioning, replication, and referential integrity. And the thorough introduction to PostgreSQL's PL/pgSQL programming language explains how you can use this very useful but under-documented feature to develop stored procedures and triggers. The book includes a complete command reference, and database administrators will appreciate the chapters on user management, database maintenance, and backup & recovery.Also included is a CD-ROM with Command Prompt's PostgreSQL ApplicationServer, LXP. The CD covers LXP version 0.8.0 and PostgreSQL version 7.1.3.

About the Author

Worsley is co-owner of Command Prompt, Inc.

Drake is co-owner of Command Prompt, Inc.

Product Details

Paperback: 636 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media (January 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1565928466
ISBN-13: 978-1565928466
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds

Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #396,976 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#21 in Books > Computers & Internet > Networking > Data in the Enterprise > Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
#92 in Books > Computers & Internet > Databases > Data Warehousing

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Look Inside This Book

Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover

Citations (learn more)

4 books cite this book:

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Distributed Data Management in Grid Environments by Michael Di Stefano on page 233
High Performance Computing for Computational Science - VECPAR 2004: 6th International Conference, Valencia, Spain, June 28-30, 2004, Revised Selected and ... Computer Science and General Issues) by Michel Dayd� on page 128

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	24% buy Beginning Databases with PostgreSQL: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional) 4.3 out of 5 stars (10) $36.51
	8% buy The PostgreSQL Reference Manual Volume 3: Server Administration Guide 4.0 out of 5 stars (1) $16.47

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

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

Average Customer Review

2.9 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst O'Reilly book I've seen, June 17, 2002

By A Customer

O'Reilly generally does a pretty good job, but it seems like they spent very little time on this book. The "practical" examples in it are pretty useless, and you can glean just as much through a simple web search.

Just wanted to warn about one thing here:

The absolute worst part of this book is the index (which is a _very_ important part of any tech book). The one listing they have under the letter K: "keywords". What about keys? A SQL book that doesn't have an index entry for keys? There's not even any "H" listing... hashes?

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars big disappointment, February 12, 2002

By A Customer

I was hoping to finally get a good book on PostgreSQL. I guess I'll keep waiting. Want specifics? The index is entirely useless (3 pages for 600+ pages of book). Incomplete data type listing and description (at least I haven't found any discussion of the old large object handling or the bytea type yet). Good things? While easily found elsewhere (like in the included documentation for PostgreSQL), the chapters on PostgreSQL Administration are adaquate as is the chapter on postgresql clients. The advert...err..chapter on LXP is pretty much fluff, as is the command reference that takes up the last hundred or so pages, thus reducing the useful pagecount to about 450.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice for PostgreSQL intro, but not a master piece, December 9, 2004

By	P. Hoogendijk (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book covers the basics of PostgreSQL, but it lacks usefull info for the more avanced tasks like tuning the database.
The 'stored procedure' (PL/pgSQL) chapter was for me the only interesting part of this book for me.
When I bought this I was hoping for the PostgreSQL 'Bible', but it was a big dissapointment.

My advice for improvement for the next release:
- much better index
- drop LXP chapter
- chapter about how to tune (not just SQL statements, but the postgreSQL server itself) and benchmark PostgreSQL.
- a chapter about 'schema' and when to use them.
- extend PL/pgSQL chapter with some 'real world' examples and how to do PL/pgSQL trouble shooting, PL/Perl(?)

- general advice how to manage PostgreSQL on 'day to day' basis
- maybe have a chapter about the SLONY replication add-on
- Postgresql 8.0 features

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Written ages ago
This book used to be a good reference for PostgreSQL 7.4. However there is much more to PostgreSQL nowadays then it was six years ago. Read more

Published on March 8, 2007 by Jure Kodžoman

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Practical, Very PostgreSQL
The Command Prompt guys did a fine job of writing this book. It contains basic topics, like retrieving rows from a table, and advanced topics, like session encryption, JDBC, and... Read more

Published on August 31, 2003 by Colin Wetherbee

5.0 out of 5 stars The critics are unfair, this book is VERY good
I wanted to buy this book a few months ago, but after reading the reviews I relented. Finally, a few weeks ago I needed a book on PostgreSQL and it was the only one available, so... Read more

Published on June 18, 2003 by Stephane Larochelle

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, Learning PostgreSQL a better title
This is an excellent book to begin learning about the most advanced open source database available, it covers the theory and history of PostgreSQL and includes instructions on... Read more

Published on April 26, 2003 by Jason Sheets

3.0 out of 5 stars I don't know if the book is limited or if it's the database
I am using PostgreSQL after having used MySQL for years. Even though PostgreSQL has some nice advance features (ACID, Transaction, Foreign Key), it lacks basic and simple features... Read more

Published on December 30, 2002 by L. Maestracci

1.0 out of 5 stars not pratical
I use a Postgresql database since march 2002. I bought this book in may 2002 and the book hasn't turned out the practical guide it claims to be. Read more

Published on November 9, 2002 by Jos Deuling

4.0 out of 5 stars good reference of features, lose the LXP
I came from a mySQL environment, so I had some SQL experience before tackling PostgreSQL. Basically, I breezed over the book, and when creating my data base, I remembered what... Read more

Published on February 26, 2002 by Lev D. Lvovsky

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre PostgreSQL coverage
For beginnners to postgreSQL , this book has a decent coverage. I will bet there is nothing to beat the Momjian online PostgreSQL reference. Read more

Published on February 21, 2002 by Deke Flesche

3.0 out of 5 stars Practical PostgreSQL (O'Reilly Unix)
This book is good for a novice.To fit to the title they gave to the book, there should be more in depth discussion about the architecure of the postgresql. Read more

Published on February 12, 2002 by Srinivasa Rao Chava

3.0 out of 5 stars In response to LXP
As co-author of the book, I would like to ask what people like and don't like about the book. As we prepare to do a revision in the next 12 months it is important for us to... Read more

Published on February 7, 2002 by jd22527

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