Book Review - Mastering PostgreSQL 17

     Authors find it challenging to write a comprehensive book about PostgreSQL for several reasons. The first is that a new version of PostgreSQL is released every year with changes, new features, and tweaks.  I am lucky to have been able to review several new database titles each year, and I would like to let you know that Hans-Jurgen Schonig's Mastering PostgreSQL is a well-written reference. 

The first chapter of this book covers changes in 17. The explanations and examples are clear, concise, and easy to comprehend. For instance, the CPY command is convenient, and in 17, it can handle errors. The book's example of this new ability quickly shows how it works—short and sweet! 

From there, it covers transactions and locking, indexing, advanced SQL log files, system statistics, optimizing queries (very well done here), how to write stored procedures, security, backups, replication (also very well done), extensions, and troubleshooting.  I will have a longer review later this month, covering the outstanding parts of the book that you will need to pay strict attention to..

I highly recommend this to those new to administering PostgreSQL systems or looking to enhance their skills. For instance, the authors start the chapter on replication with a summary of the Write Ahead Log. Understanding the WAL is not only key to transactions but also essential to proper replication. The material on Point In Time Recovery and handling conflicts needs to be studied closely before you have to try it for the first time in real life.  


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