Rating: 
Summary: Change the title
Review: First of all, this is not a book about Postgresql database, it's a book about introduction to SQL!Considering the title, it should at least give some direction about how to install/configure, list the gotcha's, do's, don't's, etc. But this book starts with the assumption that you already have the database installed and ready to run, server and all. I'm not kidding, it's actually listed in one of the first sections in the book that a running server is required to read this book. How does this match the "Introduction and Concepts" title??? A little pointer to the author if he's reading this, in his next book or second edition of this book, he should: 1. Explain where PostgreSQL fits in modern distributed architectures 2. Why would I want to use PostgreSQL instead of MySQL if I'm developing a J2EE application, how about CORBA? 3. How do I take advantage of the OO features of PostgreSQL to shorten the development time
Rating:
Summary: no limits (and that is a bad thing)
Review: I teach Software Engineering for Internet Applications. Our students are free to use whatever ACID-compliant RDBMS they prefer. Since PostgreSQL is more or less the only open-source candidate (unless you count the RDBMS open-sourced by SAP), PostgreSQL is our students' third most popular choice (after Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server). The students using this book have a horrible time picking data types because the book doesn't provide fundamental information, or at least none that we could find. Want to know how long a character string can be? How precise a timestamp is? You won't find the answers in this book.
Rating:
Summary: no limits (and that is a bad thing)
Review: I teach Software Engineering for Internet Applications. Our students are free to use whatever ACID-compliant RDBMS they prefer. Since PostgreSQL is more or less the only open-source candidate (unless you count the RDBMS open-sourced by SAP), PostgreSQL is our students' third most popular choice (after Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server). The students using this book have a horrible time picking data types because the book doesn't provide fundamental information, or at least none that we could find. Want to know how long a character string can be? How precise a timestamp is? You won't find the answers in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A great overview of Postgres
Review: It's an odd commentary on the open source movement that, while open source code seems sophisticated and reliable -- as a result of the many hands working on it -- open source documentation, as a general rule, sucks. I believe that this book is the _first_ printed book on PostgreSQL. As such, the author is to be commended for his effort at collecting a great deal of useful Postgres info in one place, helping readers find the essential knowledge buried in the sea of online documentation. The book's title says "Introduction and Concepts", letting you know this isn't an advanced treatise on Postgres. The first half of the book handily summarizes SQL and then dives into hands-on PostgreSQL, run interactively via the psql interactive utility. This is a nice way to give readers direct experience with Postgres, but it is also automatically limiting because readers never learn how to use Postgres in the context of an application. There is a chapter on programming interfaces, but it covers ten languages in ten pages, which isn't enough to impart any practical Postgres programming skills. The second half of the book is a verbatim replica of the SQL Commands reference from the official Postgres user's guide. It's handy to have in the book, but it's hard to give the author any credit for simply pouring this stuff into his book unchanged. I would have liked to see some useful annotations from the author, reflecting his obviously considerable experience with Postgres. I gave the book four stars in part because the author is breaking new ground by carving out a niche with publishers for future PostgreSQL books. I'm hoping a second edition of his book comes soon, replacing (or augmenting) those 250 pages of reference material with concrete programming examples in a variety of languages and interesting comments on usage. In the meantime, this book is a very nice primer for our new employees who have to come up to speed on PostgreSQL quickly.
Rating:
Summary: don't bother if you are experienced database developer
Review: Other than some key-strokes that are not intuitive it merely confuses you more if you already have database experience. It does not explain the differenece between the procedurral language and sql itself and after reading it I have many more questions than answers...
Rating: 
Summary: A Limited Overview
Review: PostgreSQL is a complex product based on its lineage from Ingress and Illustra. Unfortunately, this book does little to draw the shrouds of mystery from the product. Half the book is devoted to the standard SQL95 commands. About a quarter of the remainder describes PostgresSQL's syntactical enhancements to that standard. The book provides almost no information about the internals of PostgresSQL. Although system tables are named at one point, there's no description at all of the data contained in these all-important tables. There's no discussion of the query optimizer, nor any meaningful discussion of PostgreSQL's locking schemes. This book is, at best, a primer. We eagerly await a book that delves beyond the surface of PostgreSQL into those features of interest to a Database Administrator.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: PostgreSQL First, the book is only half a book. Half of the 450 pages are the appendices which reprint the FAQ and the online manual. It's the most egregious padding of online content to paper that I've seen. There's no help on installation. All discussion of installation is relegated to Appendix B, which is all of two pages, and handwaves all discussion to the README or INSTALL files. There's not even a URL of where to download the software. Organization is subpar. For instance, we see OIDs printed after we first call an INSERT, but there's no mention of what they are, even to point to a future chapter. I reread a couple of pages thinking I'd missed something. There are far too many footnotes that should have just been parenthetical. It's almost as Momjian found out about how to use footnotes in Word, put in a bunch of 'em, and then got tired of using them. Speaking of Word, the book looks as if it was done entirely in Word. The program listings are separated from the descriptive text, sometimes two pages away. You actually have to look up from the text, match up the figure number, and then try to figure out how the figure matches the text. Momjian's not really sure of sure who the audience is. If a book hand-waves a discussion of operator precedence by saying that they follow the "standard rules", then it doesn't need to explain that you can backspace over typing mistakes. The writing is pretty bad in places, often overly chatty, and could use a good editor. On page 51, he says "One more aggregate capability is often overlooked -- the HAVING clause.... It is often employed in conjuction with GROUP BY." So, is it often overlooked, or often used? Other examples of areas sorely lacking: * ALTER TABLE: gets two sentences and an example * Security: one paragraph and an example on GRANT and REVOKE * Views: three paragraphs, but no explanation of how they work and why you'd use them Unfortunately, this seems to be the only PostgreSQL book on the market, much like the situation with MySQL. Initially, the only book on the market was the O'Reilly "mSQL & MySQL". Here's hoping the equivalent of the excellent "MySQL" by New Riders comes along for PostgreSQL. If you have to have something on paper, I guess you have to get this book. Otherwise, wait for another title down the road.
Rating:
Summary: Download the documentation instead
Review: The book is 453 pages of which 220 are simply manual pages in print. Of the other 233 pages about 105 of them are basic SQL syntax review. So now you have 128 pages left. Many of those are information about databases in general, such as what are indexes and why are they used. The amount of pure PostgreSQL specific information is very limited. The book is in no way worth.... You are basically paying for manual pages. Save your money and download the documentation for PostgreSQL which is very well written. This book is very well written and easy to follow. There is nothing techincally wrong with the book. Frequently, however, you will see the statement "See the manual pages for more information". Save yourself the money and see the manual pages.
Rating:
Summary: Adequate but dry and too expensive
Review: This book certainly covers all the basics for those wishing to learn PostgreSQL - However: 1. Nearly half of the book is Appendices. Maybe OK if you don't want to read the free docs on the computer screen. 2. Written like an encyclopedia. Ever try reading one of those? The lack of user exercises is particularly irritating. ... Get the Wrox book instead of this one and you will be richer and happier ...
Rating:
Summary: Adequate but dry and too expensive
Review: This book certainly covers all the basics for those wishing to learn PostgreSQL - However: 1. Nearly half of the book is Appendices. Maybe OK if you don't want to read the free docs on the computer screen. 2. Written like an encyclopedia. Ever try reading one of those? The lack of user exercises is particularly irritating. ... Get the Wrox book instead of this one and you will be richer and happier ...
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