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PostGIS in Action First Edition

by Regina Obe (Author), Leo Hsu (Author), Paul Ramsey (Foreword)

4.8 15 ratings

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Whether you're canvassing a congressional district, managing a sales region, mapping city bus schedules, or analyzing local cancer rates, thinking spatially opens up limitless possibilities for database users. PostGIS, a freely available open-source spatial database extender, can help you answer questions that you could not answer using a mere relational database. Its feature set equals or surpasses proprietary alternatives, allowing you to create location-aware queries and features with just a few lines of SQL code.
PostGIS in Action is the first book devoted entirely to PostGIS. It will help both new and experienced users write spatial queries to solve real-world problems. For those with experience in more traditional relational databases, this book provides a background in vector-based GIS so you can quickly move to analyzing, viewing, and mapping data. Advanced users will learn how to optimize queries for maximum speed, simplify geometries for greater efficiency, and create custom functions suited specifically to their applications. It also discusses the new features available in PostgreSQL 9.0 /9.1 and PostGIS 2.0 and provides tutorials on using additional open source GIS tools in conjunction with PostGIS.

ISBN-10

1935182269
ISBN-13

978-1935182269
Edition

First Edition
Publisher

Manning
Publication date

May 1, 2011
Language

English
Dimensions

7.38 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
Print length

520 pages
See all details

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

This book isn't a substitute for the official PostGIS documentation. The official PostGIS
documentation does a good job of introducing you to the myriad of functions available
in PostGIS and provides examples on how to use each. It won't tell you how to
combine all these functions into a recipe to solve your problems. That is the purpose
of our book. Although it doesn't cover all functions available in PostGIS, this book
does cover the more commonly used or interesting ones and gives you the skills you
need to combine them to solve classic and more esoteric but interesting problems in
spatial analysis and modeling.

While you can use this book as a source of reference, we recommend that you do
visit the official PostGIS site and download or peruse the documentation.

This book focuses on two-dimensional non-curved Cartesian vector geometries.
Although it is primarily about writing spatial queries against 2D vector geometries, we
provide introductions to the following ancillary topics:

Creating 3D vector geometries
Creating curved geometries
Creating and querying the geodetic geography data type
Working with raster data using the companion raster data type (integrated in
PostGIS 2.0)

While the main purpose of this book is the use of PostGIS, we'd fall short of our mission
if we neglected to provide some perspective on the landscape it lives in. PostGIS is
not an island and rarely works alone. To complete the cycle, we also include the following:

An extensive appendix that covers PostgreSQL in great detail from setup, to
backup, to security management, as well as the fundamentals of SQL and creating
functions and other objects in it
Several chapters dedicated to the use of PostGIS in web mapping, viewing using
desktop tools, PostgreSQL PL languages commonly used with PostGIS, and extra
open source add-ons such as the TIGER geocoder, pgRouting, PL/R, and PL/
Python

From the Back Cover

What's Inside

An introduction to spatial databases
Geometry types, functions, and queries
Applying PostGIS to real-world problems
Extending PostGIS to web and desktop applications

Familiarity with relational database concepts is helpful
but not required.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Manning; First Edition (May 1, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 520 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1935182269
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1935182269
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.91 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.38 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.8 15 ratings

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Leo Hsu
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LUIS Bahiana

An invaluable PostGIS guide

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2011

Verified Purchase

PostGIS is an open source software program that adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. PostGIS follows the Simple Features for SQL specification from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC).
This is the first book with an in-depth and comprehensive approach to the subject. Although PG has a complete on-line documentation, and a growing community, it is useful to have all this stuff packed for ready use. Being an interdisciplinar matter , mastering it requires ,at least, an elementary knowledge of a computer language - SQL - plus fundamentals of cartography and geodesics - projections, datums geographical coordinate systems - and also the basics of geographical analysis - geometrical operations and computations between polygons, lines and points.
So, it is really hard stuff, and i think the authors suceeded to present all this material in a organized and readable way.
I have a background on traditional GIS packages - like ArcView and ArcMap, and i would recommend this book for anyone triyng - as i am - to learn new approaches on geodatabase management and Geographical Analysis.Being a new an interdisciplinary subject,there is a considerable learning curve, but the authors provide very basic examples to starters, and an excellent appendix full of on-line resources.

One person found this helpful

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Charles

The power of PostGIS/PostgreSQL spatial database

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2011

Verified Purchase

I love the PostGIS/PostgreSQL spatial database. Before I bought the PostGIS in Action Book from Amazon, I got a link and downloaded a draft of the PostGIS in Action. As I ready the pdf file, I discovered that it had all I needed to kick-start building a GeoStack of PostGIS/PostgreSQL, GeoServer, Apache/Tomcat, QGIS, Openjump and uDIG on Debian GNU/Linux squeeze. I gained alot of skills and knowledge on working with Geography and Geometry. Additionally, since we are establishing a GIS Laboratory at the work place, the Book will provide the much needed skills in building a spatial database, Application Server, Desktop GIS and Cartographic map renderer, Map tile server and Web map component using the following software: PostGIS/PostgreSQL, GeoServer, Apache/Tomcat, uDIG, Openjump, QGIS, GRASS GIS and Openlayers.

2 people found this helpful

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AmzC

I've used a bit of PostGIS at my job and with college projects and it's been useful reference.

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2017

Verified Purchase

It's a solid book, I downloaded the PDF version they offer for free when you buy this and mainly use that. I've used a bit of PostGIS at my job and with college projects and it's been useful reference.

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Megaman

The perfect book for PostGIS

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2011

Verified Purchase

I just started a new project using PostGIS, and this book has been invaluable to that experience. So whether you're just getting started or you're already an expert in few GIS systems, this book has it all. The coverage of this book is very comprehensive, the examples are clear and tangible (and cover real world problems, which I thought was amazing), and the book is written well enough that even the novice database developer can learn from this book.

4 people found this helpful

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Bette Lamore

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

Everything I expected.

One person found this helpful

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justarb

Comprehensive coverage of PostGIS for novices and experts alike

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2011

PostGIS in Action is a very comprehensive introduction to PostGIS for
developers of all levels of experience. The book is split into three
parts, with the first part containing an excellent overview of
PostGIS, explaining the whys and hows of spatial data and geometries.
The second part then takes the developer through the details of using
PostGIS, including some good coverage of performance pitfalls and
optimisation techniques. Finally, the third part of the book shows how
to integrate PostGIS with other tools.

Part 1 of PostGIS starts off nice and slow, taking the reader through
the basics of what a spatial database is, what geometry data types are
and how they are used in PostGIS. As a traditional SQL developer, I
found this introduction to be very easy to follow. The first part is
rounded out by a useful summary of the tools available to load data
from other, third-party systems into PostGIS and various export
options which are available.

Part 2 of the book is where you learn how to put PostGIS to work.
Techniques discussed include proximity analysis, geocoding addresses,
manipulating polygons and lines, and scaling and rotating geometries.
There is also a very good chapter on performance tuning, which covers
how the PostGIS query planner works, giving very useful information on
how to write efficient queries and how to tune your database and
selection of appropriate indexes and keys for your data. A discussion
on common SQL patterns and their performance implications is included
here and the advice provided is very welcome.

Part 3 covers most of the tools commonly used to build PostGIS
applications. From add-ons used to help with your spatial queries,
through using PostGIS with popular, server-side web-mapping tools
(including Google Maps and Bing Maps) on to open-source desktop tools
supporting PostGIS, this section gives the reader a thorough grasp of
just what tools are available and how they can be used.

Rounding out the book are a nice set of appendices which point you to
various PostGIS resources online, explain how to install PostGIS on
your server and a SQL primer to help you start writing queries.

Overall this is a very well written, easy to follow book that works
equally as well for beginners to PostGIS as it does for advanced
PostGIS developers. Common mistakes are pointed out throughout the
text and the examples provided are clear and to the point. I cannot
recommend this book highly enough to anyone interested in using
PostGIS in their projects, or even those who just want to understand
what a spatial database is all about.

One person found this helpful

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Michael Kress

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2014

Fine.

An awesome book for beginners and experts alike

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2011

This is an excellent book. PostGIS deals with evaluating the "where" or location of objects. Whether you are working with tracking assets, friends, building locations shapes or sizes, or any objects that have geospatial attributes, like location size shape, etc, then PostGIS is an awesome tool for doing this. PostGIS in Action is an excellent book for learning how to master this database. I have been using PostGIS for 5+yrs and found lots of tips and tricks in this book that I wish I had known about before. At the same time, this book is very well written as an introduction into geospatial databases and PostGIS. It walks the reader through the concepts and demonstrates them with easy to understand examples. I did not find myself bored with the writing even in areas that I was already well versed. I can strongly recommend this book as great addition to anyone's personal library.

One person found this helpful

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