Rating: 
Summary: Good reference and more
Review: This book is best for people who are somewhat familiar with databases and when a database is helpful. It provides lots of good info in addition to a SQL reference: performance tuning tips, client programming information for all the popular languages, server programming information, administrative information. The book is reference style; it isn't meant to be read cover to cover.
What's Bad: Most of the info here can be found online, so it might be a little pricey at ($), but it looks like amazon is selling it for about ($), which is quite reasonable.
What's Good: The book gives really helpful information about the core concepts (which really help to remember the information), rather than merely listing specifications (although it does a good job of the latter as well).
I rated this book a "5" because it provided more than I really expected. It provides nearly all of the information that you need to get postgresql working the way you would like it to, including the clients.
Rating:
Summary: Unto Us An American Writer IS Born
Review: A masterpiece...A work of sheer brilliance....A litle something to "bolster up the B's"...this ubiquitous guide is as easy to follow as a twelve-step program...As an unrepentant quidnunc, I could not put it down, even in the John...Hit me like a shot of Red Eye and a half-drunk bottle of Dixie. Not an ounce of rebarbative verbage in the whole tome. Absolutely essential indeed. Mister Stinson, you have arrived!
Rating: 
Summary: Might be good intro book, but poor advanced book
Review: Although the first sections of the book appear to be fairly straight forward and solid, as one gets to the more advanced sections, you find many typographic errors and code examples that simply do not work. Since I have some experience with the basics of PostgreSQL systems, I was interested in the Server Side Programming chapters of this book. I found the text and examples provided in these chapters to contain numberous errors, and make claims about the ability of PostgreSQL that are incorrect. My first impression is that the author has had a fair amount of experience doing moderatly complex databases with PostgreSQL. This experience shows in the chapters that explain how to setup PostgreSQL and using it for basic RDBMS functions. However, the author appears to lack a solid understanding of the more complex database programming tasks, and this shows in the number of errors and incorrect assumptions the server-side programming chapters contain. If you want to get started with PostgreSQL, and are just learning, this may well prove to be a very useful book. However, if you plan to progress to the more advanced features of the system, you will do much better with the documentation provided for free on the PostgreSQL web site.
Rating: 
Summary: Sum profreading mite be a good idea...
Review: As an experienced programmer learning postgresQL, I have not been at all impressed by the number of typos in this book, averaging at least one on each of the pages I have looked at in detail (at least the ones that are not just a virtual cut-and-paste of the online documentation), e.g: eg. pg 245 - should be two single quote characters with raise notice, not one double quote
pg 246 - should be returns not return
pg 247 - need an extra end if with the else if, or to use elsif
... etc. All seemingly trivial, but could waste lots of time for a novice programmer without ready access to the online documentation. The online documentation at postgresql.com is free and to me seems clear and largely free of typos. It seems to be a book one pays for needs to improve on this to be worth the money, whereas the mistakes in this book make it actually worse. Shame, as they may have crept in at the publishing stage and not be the author's fault.
Rating:
Summary: Lacked research
Review: Flipping through the book in a shop, rather than buying and reading it cover to cover, revealing some woeful inadequecies. Most significantly, the section on PL/perl is laughable. The sheer number of mistakes in that part are enough to warrant removal of that bit, and replacing with a new part rather than just fixing the errors. On the basis of that spot analysis, I cannot recommend the book since if they didn't even check that such a simple thing was correct, then how could the rest of the book have fared?
Rating:
Summary: really a "every-day-helper"
Review: Hi,
this reference is exactly what I've been looking for months. The SQL overview is very helpful with short sentences and examples.
What I like very much is the overview of the Postgres specific functions with description, parameters and an example.
This book is helpful for both administrators and developers, it covers the topics this two groups are interested in (administrators: monitoring, optimization, backup | developers: client and server-side programming in different languages).
I can't think of putting this book into my shelf, it HAS to be on my desk for daily needs !
Rating:
Summary: The essential reference
Review: I believe it should be named THE Essential Reference, for that is exactly what it is. No SQL for dunmmies explained with too many examples, but just a clear overview of the various options and possibilities of PostgreSQL. All the essential commands are there, explained with full syntax and caveats. The book is definitely not meant for dummies, it is more of a reference for medium to advanced users, and especially a must have for everybody who is used to a different rdbms. PostgreSQL does some things differently from most other databases, and this book is the easiest way to find out what differs where. Already (after 2 days) it saved me more time than a faster computer could save me in a month.
Rating:
Summary: Have you got the online docs ? (err.. yes)
Review: I don't like slating books so I am not about to start. PostgreSQL Essential Reference is not bad. If it actually contained more details, fuller explanations, more or better examples than the docs that come free with postgres then it would be well worth having. As such, IMHO it actually offers less for the most part. I am really trying to find a place for this on someone's book shelf. If you are a beginner and don't have access to the online docs then you might find something here. If not I would heartily recommend Bruce Momjian's online (or printed) work as a companion to the original potgreSQL manual
Rating:
Summary: Tired Online Documentation Hack w/o Index . . .
Review: I don't think I've ever one-starred a book, but I find this book so tired that I won't even sell it to somebody else to get rid of it--I don't want to waste their money. I bought this book for work since my current assignment is heavily dependent on a PostgreSQL database backend. I keep borrowing other developer's books to fill the gaps found in this one. Guys! Stop the madness. Most of what is found in this book can be found in PostgreSQL online documentation. When I survey other books on PostgreSQL, I am left with the same observation--they are merely doctoring up the online documentation into the print medium. If you're looking for the essential reference, go to your online documentation that accompanied the database software! This has been called the "Essential Reference," and I could hardly agree. Any reference would have a robust index to both basic and obscure functions. O'Reilly books stomp their competition with quality indicies. This "Essential Reference" is one of O'Reilly's easier victims (and the O' book on the subject is also weak in its index). Let me put it to you this way . . . when I have to start adding entries into an index, there's a serious problem. With that, I am attempting to access the mundane functions of PostgreSQL as a software engineer. With this, they should also have cross-references for commonly used terms that have a synonym in the PG and SQL world. Example? Find for me the \d+ shell option (data dictionary with comments) in the index. It's not explicitly listed (not even an honorable mention), nor are it's siblings. There is a single reference to PSQL (the terminal tool) that gives a page range, but no mention of its shell options. As an essential reference, the reader shouldn't have to think too hard about how to find some information therein. With an important option like this, one would expect to find it with it's own page number. Nutshell: if you want to pay for something you get for free, buy this book. If you want to pay for something that won't help you find what you're looking for, buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: The title tells all
Review: I have a printed copy of the supplied Postgresql documentation. Even printed on both sides of A4 paper it is too heavy to take onsite. This book is the ideal companion fo the online doc. The examples are slightly different and give futher insight into the workings of the Postgresql database. If you need to carry a reference to all of Postgresql commands with you, this is the book to buy.
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