My favorite feature is explain (analyze, buffers, verbose). It took some work to learn how to understand it, but I don't think anything else had such a large pa

My favorite feature is explain (analyze, buffers, verbose). It took some work to learn how to understand it, but I don't think anything else had such a large payoff. I also like the information and catalog schemas. Not something I use all the time, but all of the tables in each schema are worth exploring and seeing what information can be found. When they are needed, they can save a lot of time. Call me crazy, but I also like using PL/pgSQL. A helpful function I have takes two table or view name arguments and compares if they are the same result set. Total life-saver and a major time boost for redesigning queries and checking to make sure table transfers won't cause corruption. I love the error messages. They are so clear and always correct. I've found myself reading them and thinking "that can't be right" and sure enough, I was wrong. Configuration is a breeze. The hba and conf files are fully documented and simple to understand. The location of the files are sensible and easy to find. Seeing how other database systems deal with configuration is eye-opening to say the least. Last but not least, the documentation is just incredible. I've been asked about good PostgreSQL books, and I always say "read the docs; you'll see why there are few books around."