| | |  | Software Engineering | Home » » » Learning MySQL | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | Whether you're running a business, keeping track of members and meetings for a club, or just trying to organize a large and diverse collection of information, you'll find the MySQL database engine useful for answering questions such as: - Which are my top ten fastest-selling products?
- How frequently does this person come to our facility?
- What was the highest, lowest, and average score of the team last season?
MySQL, the most popular open-source database, offers the power of a relational database in a package that's easy to set up and administer, and Learning MySQL provides all the tools you need to get started. This densely packed tutorial includes detailed instructions to help you set up and design an effective database, create powerful queries using SQL, configure MySQL for improved security, and squeeze information out of your data. After covering the basics, the book travels far into MySQL's subtleties, including complex queries and joins, how to interact with the database over the Web using PHP or Perl, and important house-keeping such as backups and security. Topic include: - Installation on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X
- Basic and advanced querying using SQL
- User management and security
- Backups and recovery
- Tuning for improved efficiency
- Developing command-line and web database applications using the PHP and Perl programming languages
The authors, Saied Tahaghoghi and Hugh E. Williams, have careers in academia and business, and share a keen interest in research into search technologies. Whether you've never touched a database or have already completed some MySQL projects, you'll find insights in Learning MySQL that will last a career.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Seyed M.M. (Saied) Tahaghoghi | | Paperback:
| 618 pages | | Publisher:
| O'Reilly Media | | Publication Date:
| November 21, 2006 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0596008643 | | Product Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Product Width:
| 7.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.4 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.15 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.0 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.75 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 16 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 16 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 36 found the following review helpful:
 MySQL Class In A BookApr 18, 2007
By Daniel McKinnon
"Dan"
The 'Learning' series of books by O'Reilly is one of my favorites by far. The thing the separates 'Learning' books from other ones is the fact that these books (for the most part) assume that the reader has a very limited knowledge of said subject matter and ramps them up in logical succession until the point where they are comfortable and developing/designing like a seasoned pro. A 'Learning' book won't make you into an uber pro overnight, but if you are the type that better learns away from the classroom and would rather spend said time (and a lot less money) sitting in front of a computer at home with a book on your lap, you could do a lot less than this O'Reilly line of books.
With 'Learning MySQL' the tradition most definitely continues. ~600 pages await the reader who picks up this gem and you don't need to have any extensive database experience in order to be able to pick this up and start cracking! From the basics of installation on Linux, Windows and the Mac to basic SQL like writing queries and stored procedures, the foundation is all there. Continuing on to discussing security, performing backups and tuning, this is an exceptional book broken up logically and smoothly into 6 parts and 18 chapters:
01. Intro
02. Installing MySQL
03. Using MySQL Monitor
04. Designing Databases
05. Basic SQL
06. Datbase Structures
07. Advanced Querying
08. More MySQL Goodies
09. Managing Users & Privileges
10. Backups & Recovery
11. Using An Options File
12. Configuring & Tuning The Server
13. Web Database Applications
14. PHP
15. PHP Application Case Study
16. Perl
17. Perl With MySQL
18. Serving Perl Pages To The Web
The chapters on PHP and Perl will show you how you can write web apps to interact with your MySQL database and move far beyond the basics or returning tables and rows to the fun you can really have with MySQL!!!
If you are using MySQL for fun or work, this is a great guide for all new/amateur programmers that want to get working efficiently in no time at all!!
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Excellent starting point for a new userJul 28, 2007
By CH
As a new user of MySQL with no previous SQL experience I found this book extremely helpful. This book helped me get my project up and running in very little time. I was especially impressed that even though the examples in the book did not directly correlate to what I was trying to accomplish it gave me enough general knowledge of MySQL to easily put together my project.
11 of 13 found the following review helpful:
All levels need the tutorials herein which guarantee nothing is lost in the cracks.Feb 03, 2007
By Midwest Book Review
A range of users are possible for Seyed M.N. Tahaghoghi & Hugh E. Williams's handbook Learning MySQL, from those running a business or keeping membership records to others who are involved in software design. LEARNING MYSQL covers all the basics in introductory chapters - then moves ahead to more advanced uses of SQL, from configuring MySQL for better security to advanced querying. The open source database offers plenty of advanced capabilities but without a book like LEARNING MYSQL, much of these would be lost: all levels need the tutorials herein which guarantee nothing is lost in the cracks.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Good book for an absolute beginnerDec 05, 2007
By smudgedlens
I was really impressed with "Learning MySQL". I actually got into MySQL because I was interested in developing data-driven websites. Instead of just buying a book on PHP & MySQL, I thought I would start by focusing just on MySQL to develop a strong foundation on the database side. With that in mind, I felt like this book did a great job covering all bases (no pun intended...Alright, I put some thought into that one).
If you are completely new to databases, then this book is a good place to start - here's why:
1) Coverage of database concepts and design: This book doesn't just launch into the code stuff. It will teach you about database structure and relationships. It will give you some pretty straight-forward rules on how you should design your database with regards to what goes in what tables and how columns in the tables relate to each other (the actual data relationships).
2) History of SQL: Without going into too much detail, the book explains where SQL has come from and what you can expect from it now.
3) Explanation of SQL Syntax: This book does a great job breaking down the syntax of the SQL language and showing you the standard syntax for the various statements it presents.
4) Examples galore: Okay, so a lot of the examples are pretty useless, but they do what they need to - show you how things work. There are also some big examples that are used consistently throughout the book, so you can see your own development in how you interact with the data. There are SQL scripts that you can download from the O'Reilly website to import the tables and data directly into your database to follow along with the authors' examples.
5) Database Tools: The book points you to some useful graphical tools that can be used to interact with your database server or even to design databases (then import the design structure directly into your MySQL server). To be honest, though, it doesn't really go into too much detail on how to configure or use the software (but it's pretty easy to figure out). I think the most important thing is that the book uses the command-line for all it's examples. There is no padding between you and the database.
6) MySQL installation: If you are installing MySQL for the first time (and PHP or Perl for that matter), this book does a fantastic job showing you detailed instructions on how to get everything installed on the Linux, Mac and Windows platforms (using multiple methods on each platform). I used Linux, so I can't actually vouch for how great the instructions are on the other platforms, but - from what I picked up - they are good (definitely better than some other books that tend to favor one platform over another, and put in instructions for those other platforms as an after-thought).
The bottom line is that this book does a great job of getting you up and running, explaining the concepts behind database management, and using examples to teach you how to use the wealth of SQL statements to achieve your goals.
There is also a few chapters at the end of the book that will whet your appetite for building web applications to interact with your database (PHP and Perl). Be warned: These chapters don't do a very good job teaching you PHP and Perl (which is understandable because it's a MySQL book). However, they do show you what MySQL is capable of when combined with these other languages.
39 of 54 found the following review helpful:
 Two generations out of dateJan 30, 2008
By Thomas D. Kehoe
The first twelve chapters of "Learning MySQL" appear to be a textbook written in the mid-1990s for teaching MySQL to college students. Chapter 13 appears to have been added in 1999, about using MySQL with PHP to build websites. The first twelve chapters require using a terminal or command line (shell) interface to MySQL. My hosting service no longer supports command line interfaces, you're required to use PHPmyAdmin, which is faster and easier. Without access to a command line interface I couldn't do the exercises in the first twelve chapters; without understanding the first twelve chapters you can't figure out chapter 13. Chapter 13 teaches the PHP mysql extensions, which were superseded in 2004 by the mysqli ("i" for "improved") extensions. So the book is two generations out of date. Chapter 14 is about using Perl with PHP -- has anyone built a website with Perl in the last five years? There are other annoyances, such as you're taught to read data out of your database before you're taught to insert data into your database. After flipping back and forth between sections trying to find missing information I gave up. It's hard to believe that O'Reilly published this dinosaur in 2006. I recommend instead "Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional," by W. Jason Gilmore.
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