MySQL (New Riders Professional Library)

The volume is superbly organised in 12 chapters and 10 appendices and contains a concise table of contents and an expansive 50-page index for relational information extraction. It is peppered with references to the on-line HTML documentation that comes with the source and binary distributions (which are available and trivially-installable in stable rpm and tar releases).

The first third of MySQL is an excellent instruction tool for database newbies; the second third is a detailed reference for MySQL developers; and the last third consists of clearly annotated appendices, including C, Perl (but not Python), and PHP interfaces.

Perhaps as an indication of the collective will of the developers of MySQL, DuBois does not separate Window 95/98/NT design or development specifics from its main discussions. Platform-independent design is a goal, not a reality, and users will have to rely on newsgroups and mailing lists for details. Moreover, security issues are addressed in a mere 18 pages, a large part of which is devoted to standard UNIX file and network-access permissions. Next-to-nothing is mentioned about defence against common hacking strategies, the use of secure shell interfaces or access encryption.

Although it is nearly 800 pages, DuBois's book is gratefully not encyclopaedic. It is a valuable precis of the MySQL database, and its easy-to-skim look and feel will make it an excellent browse for database experts who want to know what is and is not possible within MySQL, the application. --Peter Leopold, Amazon.com

I am impressed by the clarity and usefulness of the introductory chapters that are targeted at readers new to databases. This section gives non-technical users the knowledge and experience needed to make productive use of a database very quickly.
The book make the learning for beginners piece of cake, and for experienced ones a lot of fun. It's focus is on couple of tables that you build in the first chapter, and keep manipulating throughout the book.
Easy language, great references and awesome appendixes. Listings of all the functions, keywords, syntaxes are available (in alphabetical order). Also separate appendixes for Perl DBI API, C API and PHP API makes it even more useful...


Got to be THE definitive MySQL book   June 11, 2001
 12 out of 13 found this review helpful

I found myself having to use MySQL to backend a C-based project I was doing, but I'd not seen MySQL before. Used this book along with the online manual and had the application working great (with replication!) in about three days. Just added a web-based PHP front end too. All this is documented in this book, very clear and easy to follow. Problems? - if you don't know SQL, get a SQL reference as well, and the book is a bit out of date, which is normal with computer software books. Oh, and it's a bit on the pricy side.. Summary: in my opinion this book is as definitive on MySQL as K&R is/was on the C language. Get it!