The authors clearly explain the topics covered in the book, I've given the book to several co-workers who were interested in the book and they also view it favorably.
I recommend this book to the person interested in learning more about PostgreSQL or the person who has never used a database server before.
This book does not get into the advanced features of PostgreSQL but all in all this is a quality reference and handbook, perhaps better named as Learning PostgreSQL.
Normally I would have given this book 4 stars, but after being misled by the bad reviews below I decided it well deserved the extra star. My only concern with this book, is that it leaves out PHP, which is a shame. Because most people I know use PHP to interface the web with PostgreSQL.
if you need a book on the best Open Source database at the present, then this book should be amongst your top picks.
Furthermore, it covers all the tools provided with PostgreSQL distributions (vacuumdb, etc.) and has a chapter on the included LXP software, which I haven't tried because I don't need it.
This text, in conjunction with Programming the Perl DBI, got me from a PostgreSQL/DBI newbie to accidentally memorizing common SQL syntax, writing my own Perl DBI wrapper, and programming some simpler PL/pgSQL functions in about four days.
I highly recommend it both as a tutorial and as a reference. Be warned, though -- the index is a bit sparse. Using it as a reference might require putting sticky tabs at the tops of your pages, as I've done.
