PostgreSQL &version; Programmer's Guide
 
  The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
  &legal;
 
 
  Preface
  
   What's In This Book
   
    This book is for PostgreSQL> application
    programmers.  It is divided into three parts.
   
   
    The first part of this book describes the client programming
    interfaces distributed with PostgreSQL>.  Each of
    these chapters can be read independently.  Note that there are
    many other programming interfaces for client programs that are
    distributed separately and contain their own documentation.
    Readers of the first part should be familiar with using
    SQL commands to manipulate and query the
    database (see the &cite-user;) and of course with the programming
    language that the interface uses.
   
   
    The second part of this book is about extending the server
    functionality with user-defined functions, data types, triggers,
    etc.  These are advanced topics which should probably be
    approached only after all the other user documentation about
    PostgreSQL> has been understood.
   
   
    The third part of this book described the available server-side
    programming languages.  This information is related to the second
    part and is only useful to readers that have read at least the
    first few chapters thereof.
   
   
    This book covers PostgreSQL &version;
    only.  For information on other versions, please read the
    documentation that accompanies that release.
   
  
 
 
  Client Interfaces
  
   
    This part of the manual is the description of the client-side
    programming interfaces and support libraries for various
    languages.
   
  
  &libpq;
  &lobj;
  &libpgtcl;
  &ecpg;
  &jdbc;
  &pygresql;
 
 
  Server Programming
  
   
    This second part of the manual explains the
    PostgreSQL approach to extensibility
    and describe how users can extend
    PostgreSQL by adding user-defined
    types, operators, aggregates, and both query language and
    programming language functions.  After a discussion of the
    PostgreSQL rule system, we discuss the
    trigger and SPI interfaces.
   
  
  &arch-pg;
  &extend;
  &xfunc;
  &xtypes;
  &xoper;
  &xaggr;
  &rules;
  &xindex;
  &indexcost;
  &trigger;
  &spi;
 
 
  Procedural Languages
  
   
    This part documents the procedural languages available in the
    PostgreSQL distribution as well as
    general issues concerning procedural languages.
   
  
  &xplang;
  &plsql;
  &pltcl;
  &plperl;
  &plpython;