MySQL is a popular and robust open source database product that supports key subsets of SQL on both Linux and Unix systems. MySQL is free for nonprofit use and costs a small amount for commercial use. Unlike commercial databases, MySQL is affordable and easy to use. This book includes introductions to SQL and to relational database theory. If you plan to use MySQL to build web sites or other Linux or Unix applications, this book teaches you to do that, and it will remain useful as a reference once you understand the basics. Ample tutorial material and examples are included throughout.

This book has all you need to take full advantage of this powerful database management system. It takes you through the whole process from installation and configuration to programming interfaces and database administration. This second edition has a greatly enhanced administration chapter that includes information on administrative tools, server configuration, server startup and shutdown, log file management, database backup and restore, and database administration and repair. In addition, a new chapter on security describes data, server, and client-server security, while a chapter on extending MySQL provides an overview of MySQL internals and describes the use of MySQL user-defined functions.

If you know C/C++, Java, Perl, PHP, or Python, you can write programs to interact with your MySQL database. In addition, you can embed queries and updates directly in an HTML file so that a web page becomes its own interface to the database. Managing and Using MySQL includes chapters on the programming language interfaces, and it also includes a complete reference section with specific function calls for each language.

Also included in the reference section are references to the SQL language, and details of the MySQL system variables, programs, and utilities. New to the second edition is a reference to the internal MySQL tables, which will be of particular interest to those who want to work extensively with MySQL security.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 14 Ratings

Good Introduction to MySQL - But Only an Introduction - 2003-11-06
Reviewer Rating:
This book is clearly and succinctly written, and provides an excellent introduction to MySQL. It starts with a few pages on the history and philosophy behind MySQL, which is useful if you want to understand the advantages and disadvantages of MySQL relative to other options such as PostgreSQL or Oracle. It then follows with chapters on installation, with specific instructions for Solaris, Linux, and Windows; on MySQL's dialect of SQL (Structured Query Language); and on basic administration tasks such as configuration, startup and shutdown, logging, backup, and recovery. That's really all you need to get a basic database up and running, and it's all in the first 80 pages of the book.

Part II of the book covers more advanced administrative tasks, with chapters on performance tuning, security, and database design. This section of the book is weaker than the first section; while there's some useful introductory material on each of these topics, depth is lacking. For example, the discussion of putting a database into second normal form is misleading because it uses a table with only one field as the unique identifier, making it impossible to clearly illustrate the removal to a smaller table of fields that are dependent on only part of a (typically multifield) unique identifier. Also, some of the more advanced MySQL features which might be appropriate for this section are omitted.

Part III of the book, entitled "MySQL Programming", has sections accessing MySQL from Perl, Python, PHP, C, Java. These sections are mostly limited to information specific to MySQL that might not be found in general purpose documentation of these languages. For example, the PHP section documents the relevant function calls, since PHP uses different functions to access MySQL than it does to access, say, ODBC databases, while the Java section focuses on JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) driver configuration since the JDBC API is database independent.

Finally, there is a reference section and a good, complete index.

If what you want to do is get a small database up and running in a minimum of time with a minimum of hassle, this is the book for you. If you want more than an introductory level of detail and depth, though, you might look at other books; Leon Atkinson's "Core MySQL", for example, has more complete coverage, though the writing style is not as clear and direct.

Lack of In-Depth Information - 2004-06-28
Reviewer Rating:
I generally love the O'Reilly books because they tend to be very thorough and have lots of practical code examples, but this book was a big disappointment to me. I was easily frustrated by this book. As a beginner to MySQL and database programming, I was completely lost whenever I tried to apply something to my own projects. The explanations given here are very brief and the authors often send you elsewhere for more in-depth discussion. I wound up doing most of my research online and just using the SQL reference chapter to look-up query syntax. I give it two stars because it did help me get started, but I'd say this is a poor reference for anyone looking for in-depth coverage.

Don't waste your money - 2003-11-04
Reviewer Rating:
this is a typical book comes out of George Reese:

1. poorly written
2. shamelessly copy and paste existing materials from reference manual
3. full of error

the author is only trying to get a quick buck or two.avoid it at all cost.

Very good book for introduction to MySQL - 2008-01-17
Reviewer Rating:
This book was excellent for my need: I had used SQL before but didn't know much of anything about relational databases let alone MySQL. I am in the process of building a web application that reports survey data. It will tell you everything you need to know to get started with a small to mid-size database.

Best of all, this book is well written, clear, the examples are GREAT and if you cut out the portions that are not relevant to you (for me this was security and the sections on PHP and Perl to name a few) you can literally learn all you need to know to get started in less than two weeks of studying for a few hours per day. Amazing value.

The portions of the book on MySQL itself are not obviously dated, but the Python DB API interface has changed (to version 2.0) since this book was written.

Excellent guide and reference - 2007-01-15
Reviewer Rating:
This book covers MySQL at a good level of both depth and breadth. It weaves in a great combination of the history and philosophy behind design choices the MySQL development community made, and provides many examples of how to use MySQL in different languages.

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