Re: Good Books

If you are looking for a database theory book, I highly recommend "An
Introduction to Database Systems" by C.J. Date. It's very theoretical,
but it's precisely worded and very interesting.

Regards,
    Jeff Davis


On Thu, 2005-03-24 at 06:54 -0600, Scott Marlowe wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-03-24 at 06:37, postgresql@bryden.co.za wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I am new to PostgreSQL and find that the standard documentation is very
> > thin. I would like to buy a more comprehensive book. All the available
> > books seem very out of date!!! Firstly, does it matter if I buy a book
> > that was published in Feb 2003? Will such a book be hopelessly out of
> > date?
> >
> > Does anyone know of any books that will be releasing imminently?
>
> The first books to pick up and become familiar with are the ones on
> database theory, not specifically postgresql.  While a lot of other
> databases come with documentation that explains a lot of relational
> theory, PostgreSQL comes with documentation that pretty much assumes you
> already understand database basics and are looking for how to do some
> particular thing in postgresql.  So it's not that it's thin in terms of
> covering PostgreSQL, but thin in terms that it's focus is not general
> database theory, but postgresql specifics.
>
> A lot of the books written about PostgreSQL have more information about
> theory, but honestly, a good generic database oriented book is usually
> more helpful at first for most folks.
>
> If you're already familiar with basic db theory, then look for some of
> the pgsql books that have been placed online by their publishers.
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your
>       joining column's datatypes do not match