My SQL and mSQL

Simply the best MySQL intro book. If you have no MySQL experience I believe you have no idea where to start from and this book is a perfect tutorial that guide MySQL newbie step by step to more and more complicated aspects of MySQL. Even if almost 1/3 of the book is about programming MySQL using different languages, you will find enough information to get basic MySQL experience, have a clear understanding of all MySQL concepts and be prepared to read (and understand) MySQL reference books ( You will need them anyway :-) )Even when you finish to read this bookit will serve you as good SQL (mSQL and MySQL dialects) reference.Conclusion: this is your first MySQL book! I think the second will be MySQL Reference Book.

I must admit I am perplexed at the poor ratings this book has received. I've found it to be a good reference and full of interesting material. I've been developing applications using Mysql intermittently for over a year, and this book always proves to be helpful when I begin working with it again.

If you are a (real) computer professional and need a great book to get your self up to speed on MySQL. Then this is your book. Best used with MySQL's online documentation. Also a really good section for perl DBI /DBD API. Note: I read the bad reviews placed about this book. And it seemed that the people who gave bad reviews don't know much about computers or databases. This book is not meant for cover-to-cover reading. Just read the first 4 chapters then use as a reference when needed. You will find it an exhalent source for problem solving MySQL issues and when you need to get more in-depth go to the online doc provide by MySQL.

I disagree with many of the reviews I've read here."MySQL & mSQL" was EXACTLY what I hoped and expected it to be: a detailed discussion of what was unique to just those two database products. If you need to learn SQL, normalization, schema design, query optimiziation, etc, go buy one of the dozens of books already out there -- they apply to MySQL as well as Sybase, Oracle, etc.However, if you're like me and you already know SQL and relational database concepts, then all you really want to know is how MySQL/mSQL implement them and how you go about executing statements, running queries, and extracting results from your programming language of choice. I needed to know: what datatypes MySQL supports; what RDBMS features it does/does not provide, and how to get at them; how the peculiar MySQL security system operates; and how to access MySQL from Perl and Java. It answered every one of my questions comprehensively and succinctly.Exactly as it should have.

The book is simply a great one! What I can tell is that I used to hate database stuff and regarded them as the most boring thing ever. But my view changed after reading MySQL and mSQL. The book provides you a very clear concept of what databases are and how they work, it also comes with a number of clear examples. However, in fact, I personally would prefer heavier contents on the programming part. END