To get the most out of this book

This book has been written for a broad audience. In order to follow the examples presented in this book, it makes sense to have at least some experience with SQL and perhaps even PostgreSQL in general (although this is not a strict requirement). In general, it is a good idea to have some familiarity with the UNIX command line.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "I will add one row to the table using a simple INSERT command."

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

test=# CREATE TABLE  t_test (id int);  
CREATE TABLE 
test=# INSERT INTO t_test VALUES (0);  
INSERT 0 1 

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on screen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.