What this book covers
Chapter 1, PostgreSQL 15 Overview, guides you through the most important features that have made it into the new release of PostgreSQL and explains how those features can be used.
Chapter 2, Understanding Transactions and Locking, explains the fundamental concepts of transactions and locking. Both topics are key requirements to understand storage management in PostgreSQL.
Chapter 3, Making Use of Indexes, introduces the concept of indexes, which are the key ingredient when dealing with performance in general. You will learn about simple indexes as well as more sophisticated concepts.
Chapter 4, Handling Advanced SQL, unleashes the full power of SQL and outlines the most advanced functionality a query language has to offer. You will learn about windowing functions, ordered sets, hypothetical aggregates, and a lot more. All those techniques will open a totally new world of functionality.
Chapter 5, Log Files and System Statistics, explains how you can use runtime statistics collected by PostgreSQL to make operations easier and to debug the database. You will be guided through the internal information-gathering infrastructure.
Chapter 6, Optimizing Queries for Good Performance, is all about good query performance and outlines optimization techniques that are essential to bringing your database up to speed to handle even bigger workloads.
Chapter 7, Writing Stored Procedures, introduces you to the concept of server-side code such as functions, stored procedures, and a lot more. You will learn how to write triggers and dive into server-side logic.
Chapter 8, Managing PostgreSQL Security, helps you to make your database more secure, and explains what can be done to ensure safety and data protection at all levels.
Chapter 9, Handling Backup and Recovery, helps you to make copies of your database to protect yourself against crashes and database failure.
Chapter 10, Making Sense of Backups and Replication, follows up on backups and recovery and explains additional techniques, such as streaming replication, clustering, and a lot more. It covers the most advanced topics.
Chapter 11, Deciding on Useful Extensions, explores extensions and additional useful features that can be added to PostgreSQL.
Chapter 12, Troubleshooting PostgreSQL, completes the circle of topics and explains what can be done if things don’t work as expected. You will learn how to find the most common issues and understand how problems can be fixed.
Chapter 13, Migrating to PostgreSQL, teaches you how to move your databases to PostgreSQL efficiently and quickly. It covers the most common database systems people will migrate from.
