MySQL: Visual QuickStart Guide

Larry Ullman has seemingly made a career out of his expertise in PHP and MySQL. And his expertise in both is unquestionable. Fortunately for those of us who wish to quickly grasp the essentials of these two technologies, Ullman is also an excellent teacher and writer. MySQL walks you gently through the beginner to early intermediate level of familiarity with the platform. It does not treat any aspect of MySQL in great depth - which is a plus, not a minus. Cruising this book will not make you an expert on MySQL, but it will place you firmly in control of the fundamentals so you can more comfortably continue on the path to becoming a MySQL. Think of it as "training wheels". Overall, a thorough, painless introduction to MySQL for the rank beginner. Jerry

Learning MYSQL can be a little daunting for beginners because its open-source and you have to do some research in getting the right information sometimes. This book is aimed at the beginner who wants to get their feet wet with MYSQL and also how to use it with many of the more popular development platforms such as Java, Perl and PHP. It is easy to read through because of its column-based format with enough snapshots and visual guides to prevent you from getting eye strain. º It first focuses on getting up and running on MySQL with the installation process on Windows or Mac or Linux (and UNIX). The book gives you all the links to install all the components of the database plus additional tools that will streamline you development process. There is also good information on how to upgrade your version of MySQL The next chapter explains how to get you up and running in MySQL in the three different OS¡¦s with specifics on: Using mysqladmin, setting root password, using mysql client, setting up user privledges (creating new users) and starting and stopping services. A kinda detailed brief overview of how to be a MySQL admin. Chapter 3 focuses on database design which usually can be kinda boring talking about normalization, importance of keys, table relationships, etc but the book only gives you the information you need with nice visuals to reinforce what is tauaght. Chapter 4 goes over the MySQL and SQL commands in creating a database and table(s) with emphasis on field data types. Chapter 5 is a very useful chapter on basic SQL commands, since what is a database without the user knowing SQL, right? The author very succinctly reviews the SELECT statement for retrieving data, the UPDATE statement for updating records, DELETE and INSERT (you can guess what those two do). The book also goes into detail about table JOINS and filtering data with the WHERE, LIKE and GROUP BYclauses. A great resource chapter for the times you forget your basic syntax (which most people do from time to time). Chapter 6 through 9 reviews how each of the more popular server-side web languages (PHP, Perl, and Java) use MyQL is used to retrieve, populate and update via web pages. The book provides code examples of the MySQL functions are specific to each language. Starting from how to connect to the database; how to execute commands; how to retrieve and display data (looping through records); how to incorporate error handling and how to secure your data. Depending on your preference, you will at least one of these chapters very helpful. The next chapter focuses on new features in MySQL version 5 (stored procedures, triggers and views). These are somewhat advanced topics to a point but are covered wonderfully that even the newbie can understand. The book finishes up with database administration issues such as performing and scheduling backups, logging, importing/exporting and repairing corruption issues. A great introduction to MySQL that really can be your all-in-o

If you are new to SQL or MySQL, this is the book to get. Once you get past the newbie stage, then get Vaswani's MySQL Complete Reference. I really like Ullman's books. He does a very good job of explaining and walking you through the various parts with a minimum of fuss and distractions. This, as well as his other books on PHP are tutorial in nature rather than reference books, so the order of subjects is his. The book also works ok (not great) as a reference because he has a pretty good index. I read MySQL VQG last year when I was completely new to SQL, MySQL & PHP, so that is the perspective for this rating. It is intended to be an introductory book, hence the name Visual QuickStart Guide. It was a fast, straight forward read, well worth my limited available time. I highly recommend Ullman to MySQL beginners.

Larry Ullman's Visual QuickStart Guide is top-notch. At the beginning of the summer, I knew nothing about MySQL. Now I am SELECT-ing, INSERT-ing, and doing all other sorts of MySQL like a pro, or at least like someone who understands what is going on. This book is divided into 3 major sections in my mind. The first 100 or so pages deal with installing MySQL, creating databases, and using SQL queries to do thing. The next 80 pages are about using MySQL in conjunction with various languages: PHP, Perl, and Java. The last 100 pages have helpful solutions (how to make a search engine, or present result pages when doing a search), a section on MySQL administration, and some useful appendicies. Like most QuickStart Guides, you can jump around in this book and use it as a reference manual, though you really need to read from chapter 2 to 4 if you are new to relational databases in general or MySQL in particular. Chapter 3 on Database Design is excellent. I walked through it step-by-step and followed the instructions to plan out my database. The database has been working very well, and I felt that I really understood what was going on instead of just entering commands and hoping they worked. Chapter 4 and 5, which explain MySQL commands and functions, are likewise very well done and useful. My only criticism is that sometimes the code presented in the latter sections of the book gets mired-down in lots of HTML tags which can make things a little difficult to read. There is not much here for fairly intermediate to advanced users who already know MySQL. If that is you, perhaps another book would serve you better. In summary: if you want to understand and use MySQL and have little to no knowledge of it currently, this book is for you.

Another reviewer mentioned "bugs" in this book, i.e., commands in the book that don't work. as I understand it, one of the difficulties with open-source software is that in can be available in a number of different packages from a number of different distributors that all work in slightly different ways. Therefore, if you're not using exactly the same version of MySQL, it's not going to work exactly the same for you. Given this inherent difficulty in writing a guide like this Larry Ullman does an excellent job. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the step-by-step approach of the Visual Quickstart Guides works really well for some people, like me. My first one was Liz Castro's HTML book, which got me hooked.The best feature of Larry Ullman's book, though, is the fact that he has set up an online support site to accompany it. Larry personally answers questions from readers who have gotten stuck at various points. This is above and beyond the call of duty for most tech-book writers. Unfortunately for Larry, his wish to have more readers who have finished the book help out with the question answering hasn't come true yet, so if you do finish the book, go to the site and help him out!