The libpq library is very well designed. I've used many other database APIs (OCI from Oracle, DBLibrary and OpenClient from Sybase, and ODBC) and none have compared to the simplicity offered by libpq. Other database APIs may offer a few more features, but these generally come at the cost of greatly increased complexity.
I encourage you to try the sample applications in this chapter. Feel free to experiment. I haven't covered all the libpq functions in this chapter, only the ones you are most likely to need in your own applications. Explore the library; as you will see in the next few chapters, libpq is the foundation on which most of the other PostgreSQL APIs are built. The better you understand libpq, the easier it will be to work with other APIs.
Part I: General PostgreSQL Use
Introduction to PostgreSQL and SQL
Working with Data in PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL SQL Syntax and Use
Performance
Part II: Programming with PostgreSQL
Introduction to PostgreSQL Programming
Extending PostgreSQL
PL/pgSQL
The PostgreSQL C APIlibpq
A Simpler C APIlibpgeasy
The New PostgreSQL C++ APIlibpqxx
Embedding SQL Commands in C Programsecpg
Using PostgreSQL from an ODBC Client Application
Using PostgreSQL from a Java Client Application
Using PostgreSQL with Perl
Using PostgreSQL with PHP
Using PostgreSQL with Tcl and Tcl/Tk
Using PostgreSQL with Python
Npgsql: The .NET Data Provider
Other Useful Programming Tools
Part III: PostgreSQL Administration
Introduction to PostgreSQL Administration
PostgreSQL Administration
Internationalization and Localization
Security
Replicating PostgreSQL Data with Slony
Contributed Modules
Index