In part 1 of PostGIS in Action, Third Edition, you learned about the building blocks you’ll need to solve spatial problems. By now you should be able to set up a PostGIS database, populate it with data, and transform data between disparate spatial reference systems. You should also be comfortable using the most common functions in PostGIS and be able to take advantage of their prowess when writing SQL.
In part 2 you’ll put the pieces together to solve real problems. The important lessons we want you to take away from part 2 entail how to tackle each problem, starting with building a correct formulation, setting up an appropriate structure to support the analysis, choosing the most appropriate PostGIS functions, and putting it all together using SQL.
Chapter 10 covers geocoding with the packaged PostGIS TIGER geocoder. You’ll learn how to load US Census TIGER data using functions packaged with the TIGER geocoder. Once the data is loaded, you’ll learn how to use the packaged functions to normalize, geocode, and reverse-geocode data.
Chapters 11 and 12 cover various common problems found in vector and raster spatial analyses that you’ll come across in building spatial queries for applications. You’ll learn how to solve these problems with PostGIS spatial functions and ANSI SQL constructs, as well as PostgreSQL–specific enhancements to SQL.