PostgreSQL: Up and Running, 2nd Edition

Preface

PostgreSQL is an open source relational database management system that began as a research project at the University of California, Berkeley. It was originally released under the BSD license but now uses the PostgreSQL License (TPL). For all intents and purposes, it’s BSD-licensed. It has a long history, dating back to 1985.

PostgreSQL has enterprise-class features such as SQL windowing functions, the ability to create aggregate functions and also utilize them in window constructs, common table and recursive common table expressions, and streaming replication. These features are rarely found in other open source databases but are common in newer versions of proprietary databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, and DB2. What sets PostgreSQL apart from other databases, including the proprietary ones we just mentioned, is how easily you can extend it, usually without compiling any code. Not only does it include advanced features, but it also performs them quickly. It can outperform many other databases, including proprietary ones, for many types of database workloads.

In this book, we’ll expose you to the advanced ANSI SQL features that PostgreSQL offers and the unique features it contains. If you’re an existing PostgreSQL user or have some familiarity with it, we hope to show you some gems you may have missed along the way or features found in newer PostgreSQL versions that are not in the version you’re using. This book assumes you’ve used another relational database before but ...