Skip to Main Content
Practical PostgreSQL
book

Practical PostgreSQL

by Joshua D. Drake, John C. Worsley
January 2002
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
640 pages
16h 39m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Practical PostgreSQL

Chapter 4. Using SQL with PostgreSQL

In this chapter we continue to discuss SQL, this time with a practical focus. We’ll address creating tables, populating tables with data, and managing that data via SQL statements.

Like most network-capable database systems, PostgreSQL fits into a client-server paradigm. The heart of PostgreSQL is the server backend, or the postmaster process. It is called a “backend” because it is not meant to directly interface with a user; rather, it can be connected to with a variety of clients.

When you start the PostgreSQL service, the postmaster process starts running in the background, listening to a specific TCP/IP port for connections from clients. Unless explicitly configured, postmaster will bind to, and listen on, port 5432.

There are several interfaces available through which clients may connect to the postmaster process. The examples in this book use psql, the most portable and readily accessible client distributed with PostgreSQL.

This chapter covers psql basics, how to create and use tables, and how to retrieve and manage data within those tables. It also addresses SQL sub-queries and views.

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Start your free trial

You might also like

PostgreSQL: Up and Running, 2nd Edition

PostgreSQL: Up and Running, 2nd Edition

Regina O. Obe, Leo S. Hsu
Learning PostgreSQL 11 - Third Edition

Learning PostgreSQL 11 - Third Edition

Christopher Travers, Andrey Volkov
Learn PostgreSQL

Learn PostgreSQL

Luca Ferrari, Enrico Pirozzi
PostgreSQL 13 Cookbook

PostgreSQL 13 Cookbook

Vallarapu Naga Avinash Kumar

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781449309770Supplemental ContentErrata Page