PostgreSQL Essential Reference

PostgreSQL Essential Reference is designed for anyone who plans to use PostgreSQL or the new RedHat DB. It is also a valuable source of information for web developers, administrators, and programmers. This book is packed with clear and concise information on everything from basic SQL commands and common administrative tasks to proghramming applications and using PostgreSQL APIs.

A noteworthy accomplishment of this book is the layout — all the subjects are clearly presented, and the reference style makes looking up information quick and easy. Each topic is arranged both by task and alphabetically, and includes important information such as feature notes, syntax, and example code.

Barry Stinson has written this detailed reference book with the explicit intent to make this the only book you need.

• Part I: SQL Reference
1. PostgreSQL SQL Reference
• Tables of Commands
• Alphabetical Listing
• ABORT
• ALTER GROUP
• ALTER TABLE
• ALTER USER
• BEGIN
• CLOSE
• CLUSTER
• COMMENT
• COMMIT
• COPY
• CREATE AGGREGATE
• CREATE DATABASE
• CREATE FUNCTION
• CREATE INDEX
• CREATE LANGUAGE
• CREATE OPERATOR
• CREATE RULE
• CREATE SEQUENCE
• CREATE TABLE
• CREATE TABLE AS
• CREATE TRIGGER
• CREATE TYPE
• CREATE USER
• CREATE VIEW
• DECLARE
• DELETE
• DROP AGGREGATE
• DROP DATABASE
• DROP FUNCTION
• DROP GROUP
• DROP INDEX
• DROP LANGUAGE
• DROP OPERATOR
• DROP RULE
• DROP SEQUENCE
• DROP TABLE
• DROP TRIGGER
• DROP TYPE
• DROP USER
• DROP VIEW
• END
• EXPLAIN
• FETCH
• GRANT
• INSERT
• LISTEN
• LOAD
• LOCK
• MOVE
• NOTIFY
• REINDEX
• RESET
• REVOKE
• ROLLBACK
• SELECT
• SELECT INTO
• SET
• SHOW
• TRUNCATE
• UNLISTEN
• UPDATE
• VACUUM
• Part II: PostgreSQL Specifics
2. PostgreSQL Data Types
• Table of Data Types
• Geometric Data Types
• BOX
• CIRCLE
• LINE
• LSEG
• PATH
• POINT
• POLYGON
• Logical Data Types
• BOOLEAN
• Network Data Types
• CIDR
• INET
• MACADDR
• Numeric Data Types
• BIGINT (or INT8)
• DECIMAL (or NUMERIC)
• DOUBLE PRECISION (or FLOAT8)
• INTEGER (or INT4)
• REAL (or FLOAT4)
• SERIAL
• SMALLINT (or INT2)
• String Data Types
• CHAR (or CHARACTER)
• TEXT
• VARCHAR (or CHARACTER VARYING)
• Time Data Types
• DATE
• INTERVAL
• TIME
• TIME WITH TIME ZONE
• TIMESTAMP
• Other Data Types
• BIT and BITVARYING
• MONEY
• NAME
• OID
• More Data Types
3. PostgreSQL Operators
• Geometric Operators
• Listing
• Notes/Examples
• Logical Operators
• Listing
• Notes/Examples
• Network Operators
• Listing
• Notes/Examples
• Numerical Operators
• Listing
• Notes/Examples
• String Operators
• Listing
• Notes/Examples
• Time Operators
• Listing
4. PostgreSQL Functions
• Map of Functions Grouped by Category
• Aggregate Functions
• AVG
• COUNT
• MAX
• MIN
• STDDEV
• SUM
• VARIANCE
• Conversion Functions
• CAST
• TO_CHAR
• TO_DATE
• TO_NUMBER
• TO_TIMESTAMP
• Geometric Functions
• AREA
• BOX
• CENTER
• CIRCLE
  DIAMETER
• HEIGHT
• ISCLOSED
  ISOPEN
• LENGTH
• LSEG
• NPOINTS
• PATH
• PCLOSE
  POINT
• POLYGON
• POPEN
• RADIUS
• WIDTH
• Network Functions
• ABBREV
• BROADCAST
• HOST
• MASKLEN
• NETMASK
• NETWORK
• TEXT
• TRUNC
• Numerical Functions
• ABS
• ACOS
• ASIN
• ATAN
• ATAN2
• CBRT
• CEIL
• COS
• DEGREES
• EXP
• FLOOR
• LN
• LOG
• PI
• POW or POWER
• RADIANS
• RANDOM
• ROUND
• SIN
• SQRT
• TAN
• TRUNC
• SQL Functions
• CASE WHEN
• COALESCE
• NULLIF
• String Functions
• ASCII
• CHR
• INITCAP
• LENGTH, CHAR_LENGTH, or CHARACTER_LENGTH
• LOWER
• LPAD
• LTRIM
• OCTET_LENGTH
• POSITION
• STRPOS
• RPAD
• RTRIM
• SUBSTRING
• SUBSTR
• TRANSLATE
• TRIM
• UPPER
• Time Functions
• AGE
• CURRENT_DATE
• CURRENT_TIME
• CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
• DATE_PART
• DATE_TRUNC
• EXTRACT
• ISFINITE
• NOW
• TIMEOFDAY
• TIMESTAMP
• User Functions
• CURRENT_USER
• SESSION_USER
• USER
• Other Functions
• ARRAY_DIMS
5. Other PostgreSQL Topics
• Arrays in Fields
• Creating an Array
• Utilizing Array Fields
• Multidimensional Arrays
• Extending Arrays
• Inheritance
• PostgreSQL Indexes
• B-Tree Indexes
• R-Tree Indexes
• Hash Indexes
• Other Index Topics
• OIDs
• Multiversion Concurrency
• CONTROL
• READ COMMITTED Level
• SERIALIZATION Level
• Part III: PostgreSQL Administration
6. User Executable Files
• Alphabetical Listing of Files
• createdb
• createlang
• createuser
• dropdb
• droplang
• dropuser
• ecpg
• pgaccess
• pgadmin
• pg_dump
• pg_dumpall
• pg_restore
• pg_upgrade
• pgtclsh
• pgtksh
• psql
• vacuumdb
7. System Executable Files
• Alphabetical Listing of Files
• initdb
• initlocation
• ipcclean
• pg_ctl
• pg_passwd
• postgres
• postmaster
8. System Configuration Files and Libraries
• System Configuration Files
• pg_options/postgresql.conf
• /etc/logrotate.d/postgres
• pg_hba.conf
• Library Files
9. Databases and Log Files
• PostgreSQL Data Directory
• System Catalogs
• User-Defined Catalogs
• Log Files
• Customized Log Rotation
• Configuring PostgreSQL to Use syslog
10. Common Administrative Tasks
• Compiling and Installation
• Source-Based Installation
• Package-Based Installation
• Creating Users
• Granting User Rights
• Database Maintenance
• Database Backup/Restore
• Performance Tuning
• Hardware Considerations
• Tuning SQL Code
• Buffer Size and Other Considerations
• Optimizing Queries with EXPLAIN
• Part IV: Programming with PostgreSQL
11. Server-Side Programming
• Benefits of Procedural Languages
• Installing Procedural Languages
• SQL Declaration
• Using the createlang Utility
• PL/pgSQL
• PL/pgSQL Language Specifics
• PL/Tcl
• General Tcl Language Primer
• PL/Tcl Language Specifics
• PL/Perl
• General Perl Language Primer
• PL/Perl Language Specifics
12. Creating Custom Functions
• Creating Custom Functions
• Example Uses
• Creating Custom Triggers
• Creating Custom Rules
• Notes and Considerations
13. Client-Side Programming
• ecpg
• Declaring and Defining Variables
• Connecting to a Database
• Executing Queries
• Error Handling
• JDBC
• Compiling the Driver
• Installing the Driver
• Configuring Clients
• Connecting
• Executing Queries
• Updating Records
• libpq
• PQconnectdb
• PQexec
• libpq++
• PgConnection
• PgDatabase
• libpgeasy
• ODBC
• Installation
• Perl
• DBI Class (Connecting)
• DBI Handle Methods (Executing Queries)
• DBI Statement Handle Methods (Results)
• Statement Handle Attributes
• Python (PyGreSQL)
• Compiling PyGreSQL
• Python Configuration
• PyGreSQL Interfaces
• PHP
14. Advanced PostgreSQL Programming
• Extending Functions
• SQL Functions
• Procedural Language Functions
• Compiled Functions
• Extending Types
• Creating Data Types
• Extending Operators
• Defining a Custom Operator
• Optimization Notes
• Part V: Appendices
1. Additional Resources
• PostgreSQL versus Other RDBMSs
• RDBMS
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Interbase
• DB2
• Oracle
• Online PostgreSQl Resources
• Web Sites
• Mailing Lists
• Newsgroups
• FTP Sites
• Books
2. PostgreSQL Version Information
• Version 7.1.2 (Released May 2001)
• Version 7.1.1 (Released May 2001)
• Version 7.1 (Released April 2001)
• Version 7.0.3 (Released November 2000)
• Version 7.0.2 (Released June 2000)
• Version 7.0 (Released May 2000)
• Version 6.5.2 (Released September 1999)
• Version 6.5.1 (Released July 1999)
• Version 6.5 (Released June 1999)
• Version 6.4.1 (Released December 1999)
• Version 6.4 (Released October 1998)
• Version 6.3 (Released March 1998)
• Version 6.2.1 (Released October 1997)
• Version 6.2 (Released June 1997)
• Version 6.1 (Released June 1997)
• Version Postgre95 .01 (Released May 1995)

This is exactly what the title says: a reference book. You could have more fun and get more information somewhere else. Granted, it is not all bad.