MySQL Cookbook
- Media: Book (Paperback, 975 pages)
- ISBN: 059652708X
- Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- Release Date: Jan 27, 2007
Product Description
The new edition covers MySQL 5.0 and its powerful new features, as well as the older but still widespread MySQL 4.1. One major emphasis of this book is how to use SQL to formulate queries for particular kinds of questions, using the mysql client program included in MySQL distributions. The other major emphasis is how to write programs that interact with the MySQL server through an API. You'll find plenty of examples using several language APIs in multiple scenarios and situations, including the use of Ruby to retrieve and format data. There are also many new examples for using Perl, PHP, Python, and Java as well.
Other recipes in the book teach you to: Access data from multiple tables at the same time Use SQL to select, sort, and summarize rows Find matches or mismatches between rows in two tables Determine intervals between dates or times, including age calculations Store images into MySQL and retrieve them for display in web pages Get LOAD DATA to read your data files properly or find which values in the file are invalid Use strict mode to prevent entry of bad data into your database Copy a table or a database to another server Generate sequence numbers to use as unique row identifiers Create database events that execute according to a schedule And a lot more
"MySQLCookbook" doesn't attempt to develop full-fledged, complex applications. Instead, it's intended to assist you in developing applications yourself by helping you get past problems that have you stumped.
excellent resource
-a great resource for those looking to implement various mysql functions
-a great resource for database programmers
-a trove of information on powerful query and sort techniques
Finding information about the topic you're looking for is a breeze in this book - the chapters are well-organized, and this book has anwered all questions I've posed to it....
The cookbook is a powerful tool to those who know some mysql, and some dB design. I recommend that you use another book to learn basic mysql (or just an online tutorial), and another to learn database design (Navathe).
True to the Title
Mr. DuBois and O'Reilly publishing are clearly targeting a wide audience: the recipes range from frighteningly simple (e.g. 3.1, Specifying Which Columns to Select) to fairly sophisticated (e.g. 12.14, Performing a Join Between Tables in Different Databases). The recipes are typically clearly written, with ample supporting code examples and few typographical errors.
I must also note that Mr. DuBois nicely avoids a pitfall many authors (the competence of whom I have to question) in this genre encounter: failure to weave security considerations into the text. While other books often mention security as an afterthought, or worse include code examples featuring disasters like non-escaped strings (hello, SQL injection!), DuBois explicitly points out the need to sanitize input and writes code examples that demonstrate the use of prepared statements in best-practices.
Unfortunately, in other areas he is less thorough. For example, only passing mention is made of the (possible) dependence of FULLTEXT indexes on choice of storage engine. There is an entire chapter on handling duplicate rows, but the oft-needed (and non-obvious) process for removing pseudo-duplicate rows differing only by a primary key field is not directly addressed. Stored procedures, triggers, and other new additions to MySQL are among the least-well understood but most powerful features of the database engine, yet astonishingly little space is spent on them. (I could understand not discussing them in depth as there are other books available, but length did not seem to be a concern anywhere else in this book.)
In summary, the book is an excellent resource for novices and experts alike - but only as a starting point. To return to the cooking analogy, the book at times feels like it is loaded down with recipes on how to add sugar to flour, but omits recipes on how to ice the cake.
Useful book
Excellent book
For "anybody who uses MySQL"
Visuals
Good. Page numbers and section title can be found on the bottom of every page.
Audience
From the book: "This book should be useful for anybody who uses MySQL, ranging from individuals [...] to professional database and web developers."
That is a pretty broad range, basically from introductory to advanced. Nevertheless I would have to say that the book meets this challenge well. This book should be of use to anybody who uses MySQL.
Practicality:
I have to say that I have fallen for Cookbook style books. While I still thoroughly enjoy more theory heavy books, cookbooks can really deliver in the immediate practicality department.
The MySQL Cookbook is a good example of this. This book has dozens upon dozens of recipes that will likely have some measure of application in whatever MySQL dependent system you are working on.
Each recipe contains a brief "Problem" scenario, followed by an often equally brief "Solution", and finally a more lengthy discussion that shows how to actually implement the solution.
Overall
I am very pleased with this book. Mr. DuBois and O'Reilly did a great job. For instance, one of the things I especially like is that often multiple solutions are offered. For example if you were to look up Section 6.6 "Extracting Parts of Dates or Times" you will find the solution lists 3 possible options. The discussion section contains 5 pages of examples of how you might use those options to extract the desired data.
If you fit in to the intended audience of "anybody who uses MySQL", I would highly recommend this book.
