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

This book is excellent for someone with no experience with MySQL. (Like Me!) It steps you through installation, setup, and use without assuming prior knowledge.

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-one reference as well.

The book is a bit out of date since it's assuming mysql version 3 is current and currently mysql v5 is what is currently released, but it has good instructions on installing mysql on multiple platforms as well as managing on multiple platforms

Well organized with a practical approach. Buyers without previouis acquaintance with PHP programming language will have some difficulty. Otherwise the text is a great 'introduction'.