This book is all about one of the most successful open-source software products of recent
times, a relational database called PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL is finding an eager audience among database aficionados and open-source developers alike. Anyone who is creating an application with nontrivial amounts of data can benefit from using a database. PostgreSQL is an excellent implementation of a relational database, fully featured, open source, and free to use. PostgreSQL can be used from just about any major programming language you care to name, including C, C++, Perl, Python, Java, Tcl, and PHP.

It very closely follows the industry standard for query languages, SQL92, and is currently implementing features to increase compliance with the latest version of this standard, SQL:2003. PostgreSQL has also won several awards, including the Linux Journal Editor’s Choice Award for Best Database three times (for the years 2000, 2003, and 2004) and the 2004 Linux New Media Award for Best Database System. We are perhaps getting a little ahead of ourselves here. You may be wondering what exactly PostgreSQL is, and why you might want to use it. In this chapter, we will set the scene for the rest of the book and provide some background information about databases in general, the different types of databases, why they are useful, and where PostgreSQL fits into this picture.

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