MySQL Cookbook

This book should be useful for anybody who uses MySQL, ranging from individuals who want to use a database for personal projects such as a blog or Wiki, to professional database and web developers. The book should also appeal to people who do not now use MySQL, but would like to. For example, it should be useful if you want to learn about databases but realize that a "big" database system such as Oracle isn't the best choice as a learning tool. The following paragraphs summarize each chapter to give you an overview of the book's contents. Chapter 1, Using the mysql Client Program, describes how to use the standard MySQL command-line client. In addition, the chapter discusses other ways to use mysql, such as how to number output lines or make long lines more readable, how to generate various output formats, and how to log mysql sessions. Chapter 2, Writing MySQL-Based Programs, demonstrates the basic elements of MySQL programming: how to connect to the server, issue queries, retrieve the results, and handle errors. It also discusses how to handle special characters and NULL values in queries, how to write library files to encapsulate code for commonly used operations, and describes various ways to gather the parameters needed for making connections to the server. Chapter 3, Selecting Data from Tables, covers several aspects of the SELECT statement, which is the primary vehicle for retrieving data from the MySQL server: specifying which columns and rows you want to retrieve, performing comparisons, dealing with NULL values, and selecting one section of a query result. Chapter 4, Table Management, covers table cloning, copying results into other tables, using temporary tables, and checking or changing a table's storage engine. Chapter 5, Working with Strings, describes how to deal with string data. It covers character sets and collations, string comparisons, dealing with case-sensitivity issues, pattern matching, breaking apart and combining strings, and performing FULLTEXT searches. Chapter 6, Working with Dates and Times, shows how to work with temporal data. It describes MySQL's date format and how to display date values in other formats. It also covers how to use MySQL's special TIMESTAMP data type, how to set the time zone, conversion between different temporal units, how to perform date arithmetic to compute intervals or generate one date from another, and leap-year calculations. Chapter 7, Sorting Query Results, describes how to put the rows of a query result in the order you want. This includes specifying the sort direction, dealing with NULL values, accounting for string case sensitivity, and sorting by dates or partial column values. It also provides examples that show how to sort special kinds of values, such as domain names, IP numbers, and ENUM values. Chapter 8, Generating Summaries, shows techniques that are useful for assessing the general characteristics of a set of data, such as how many values it contains or what its mini

I built several web sites using PHP/MySQL and the only two books I use day-to-day are "MySQL Cookbook" and "PHP Cookbook". If you're already somewhat familiar with MySQL, this book is a great reference for the SQL and database manipulation you already know how to do. In addition, the examples push the envelope of what is possible with MySQL making it a good learning tool for becoming truly expert. Some of the information in the book I found useful includes: - simplifying complex SQL using temporary tables. - using FULLTEXT searches (similar to pattern matching but more efficient and easier to code when you're looking for the same text in several columns at the same time). - effective use of LEFT JOIN's for finding rows in one table that don't have a match in another table. - effective use of LAST_INSERT_ID( fieldName + 1 ) for transactionally updating a numeric field without using transactions and without locking a table. - numbering output rows using SQL variables (select @rownum := @rownum + 1; (see chapter 13.9)) I really can't say enough good things about this book. It's comprehensive, easy to read and just plain awesome.

I am an experienced web developer and recently started using Perl with MySQL to build database-driven CGI applications.MySQL Cookbook by Paul DuBois turned out to be a valuable reference resource.While the title mentions only MySQL, the book provides a great deal of solutions (and code) for using MySQL with Perl, PHP, Python and Java. If you are familiar with any of these computer languages, this book and MySQL manual is all you need to start building applications with MySQL-compatible database backend.

As an experienced Oracle DBA I had a need to learn about MySQL for the development of the FmPro Migrator utility to migrate FileMaker databases to MySQL. This book enabled me to quickly learn how to perform tasks in MySQL which are equivalent to what I would perform with Oracle. Congratulations to O'Reilly and Paul DuBois for continuing the fine tradition of Cookbook series books.

This book is well done, clearly written and sensibly organized. I read the same author's New Riders Book on MySQL and found it similarly useful; but if you've already got all the theory down, this may well be the only MySQL book you'll need. Wish I'd had it a few years ago.