PostgreSQL User's Guide

The PostgreSQL Development Team

Edited by

Thomas Lockhart

Table of Contents

Summary

1. Introduction

What is Postgres?

A Short History of Postgres

The Berkeley Postgres Project
Postgres95
PostgreSQL

About This Release

Resources

Terminology

Notation

Problem Reporting Guidelines

Identifying Bugs
What to report
Where to report bugs

Y2K Statement

Copyrights and Trademarks

2. SQL Syntax

Key Words

Reserved Key Words
Non-reserved Keywords

Comments

Names

Constants

String Constants
Integer Constants
Floating Point Constants
Constants of Postgres User-Defined Types
Array constants

Fields and Columns

Fields
Columns

Operators

Expressions

Parameters
Functional Expressions
Aggregate Expressions
Target List
Qualification
From List

3. Data Types

Numeric Types

The Serial Type

Monetary Type

Character Types

Date/Time Types

Date/Time Input
Date/Time Output
Time Zones
Internals

Boolean Type

Geometric Types

Point
Line Segment
Box
Path
Polygon
Circle

IP Version 4 Networks and Host Addresses

CIDR
inet

4. Operators

Lexical Precedence
General Operators
Numerical Operators
Geometric Operators
Time Interval Operators
IP V4 CIDR Operators
IP V4 INET Operators

5. Functions

SQL Functions
Mathematical Functions
String Functions
Date/Time Functions
Formatting Functions
Geometric Functions
IP V4 Functions

6. Type Conversion

Overview

Guidelines

Operators

Conversion Procedure
Examples

Functions

Examples

Query Targets

Examples

UNION Queries

Examples

7. Indices and Keys

Keys
Partial Indices

8. Arrays

9. Inheritance

10. PL/pgSQL - SQL Procedural Language

Overview

Description

Structure of PL/pgSQL
Comments
Declarations
Data Types
Expressions
Statements
Trigger Procedures
Exceptions

Examples

Some Simple PL/pgSQL Functions
PL/pgSQL Function on Composite Type
PL/pgSQL Trigger Procedure

11. PL/Tcl - TCL Procedural Language

Overview

Description

Postgres Functions and Tcl Procedure Names
Defining Functions in PL/Tcl
Global Data in PL/Tcl
Trigger Procedures in PL/Tcl
Database Access from PL/Tcl

12. PL/perl - Perl Procedural Language

Overview
Building and Installing
Using PL/Perl

13. Multi-Version Concurrency Control

Introduction

Transaction Isolation

Read Committed Isolation Level

Serializable Isolation Level

Locking and Tables

Table-level locks
Row-level locks

Locking and Indices

Data consistency checks at the application level

14. Setting Up Your Environment

15. Managing a Database

Database Creation

Alternate Database Locations

Accessing a Database

Database Privileges
Table Privileges

Destroying a Database

16. Disk Storage

17. Understanding Performance

Using EXPLAIN

18. Populating a Database

Disable Auto-commit
Use COPY FROM
Remove Indices

19. SQL Commands

ABORT
ALTER GROUP
ALTER TABLE
ALTER USER
BEGIN
CLOSE
CLUSTER
COMMENT
COMMIT
COPY
CREATE AGGREGATE
CREATE CONSTRAINT TRIGGER
CREATE DATABASE
CREATE FUNCTION
CREATE GROUP
CREATE INDEX
CREATE LANGUAGE
CREATE OPERATOR
CREATE RULE
CREATE SEQUENCE
CREATE TABLE
CREATE TABLE AS
CREATE TRIGGER
CREATE TYPE
CREATE USER
CREATE VIEW
DECLARE
DELETE
DROP AGGREGATE
DROP DATABASE
DROP FUNCTION
DROP GROUP
DROP INDEX
DROP LANGUAGE
DROP OPERATOR
DROP RULE
DROP SEQUENCE
DROP TABLE
DROP TRIGGER
DROP TYPE
DROP USER
DROP VIEW
END
EXPLAIN
FETCH
GRANT
INSERT
LISTEN
LOAD
LOCK
MOVE
NOTIFY
REINDEX
RESET
REVOKE
ROLLBACK
SELECT
SELECT INTO
SET
SHOW
TRUNCATE
UNLISTEN
UPDATE
VACUUM

20. Applications

createdb
createlang
createuser
dropdb
droplang
dropuser
ecpg
pgaccess
pgadmin
pg_ctl
pg_dump
pg_dumpall
psql
pgtclsh
pgtksh
vacuumdb

21. System Applications

initdb
initlocation
ipcclean
pg_passwd
pg_upgrade
postgres
postmaster

UG1. Date/Time Support

Time Zones

Australian Time Zones
Date/Time Input Interpretation

History of Units

Bibliography

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