MySQL Reference Manual

Documentation from the source

By Michael "Monty" Widenius, David Axmark, MySQL AB
June 2002
Pages: 814
ISBN 10: 0-596-00265-3 | ISBN 13: 9780596002657

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 Description

This highly regarded and comprehensive reference manual comes directly from the members of the MySQL team. The book covers issues at all stages in MySQL use, from installation problems through performance tuning. Included are suggested uses of privileges to enhance security, many performance tips, and a sophisticated guide to error recovery. It also offers a thorough comparison of MySQL with SQL standards and other databases. No serious MySQL user should be without this book.
Full Description

MySQL is the most popular SQL database in the open source community and is used almost universally by web sites running on open source systems. As powerful and flexible as it is lightweight and efficient, MySQL packs a large feature set into a very small and fast engine that now runs on more than 500,000 servers. This renowned online manual that has supported MySQL administrators and database developers for years is now available in paperback format. This book is an exact reproduction of the MySQL Reference Manual from the MySQL development team's Web site, minus some non-technical appendices. This version covers MySQL 4.0.

Many sophisticated topics appear in this comprehensive manual, ranging from the hitches you may run into when first installing MySQL to internals that will help you tune your queries. MySQL Reference Manual contains all the comprehensive reference material one would expect for building the product, running administrative utilities, and using various API as well as MySQL's rich version of SQL. In addition, you can turn a page and find such unexpected riches as:

  • A thorough comparison of MySQL with SQL standards and other databases
  • A discussion of privileges and suggested uses of privileges to enhance security
  • Directions for replicating a database and for running several MySQL servers on a single system
  • Directions for initializing a database from a flat file
  • Guidelines for estimating the performance of different queries
  • A far-reaching discussion of optimization, with reference to the implementation of MySQL
  • Investigations of the differences between data types and the pros and cons of each type of number, string, or timestamp
  • An extended inquiry into the effects of using delayed inserts
  • A candid explanation of why various errors occur and how to recover from them
  • Tips for weighted, full-text searches
  • Detailed descriptions of the features, strengths, and weaknesses of available table formats
  • A guide to adding new functions to MySQL

No serious MySQL user should be without this book.


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Media reviews "The book is primarily a helpful companion for those who are doing development work with MySQL. For those out there who are database programmers, it is likely to become a welcome addition to your bookshelf and if nothing else it might impress someone by its girth!"
--Paul Schneider, Compunotes

"Essential reading for MySQL developers and users."--Nick Veitch, Linux Format, Dec 2002

"It's hard to write a review of a book that has everything. No, I mean everything. It's all there. O'Reilly's 'MySQL Reference Manual: Documentation from the Source' is the print version of the online MySQL manual...Thus in one sense it doesn't fill any gap in MySQL documentation, but it fills a glaring omission in the realm printed documentation. For a long time New Riders' 'MySQL' by Paul DuBois was the standard text. That was followed by many MySQL instruction books of the 'Teach Yourself'-style genre. But the O'Reilly book is the first definitive reference...The one thing that makes this book indispensible to anyone who uses MySQL is its amazing thoroughness. The book seems to have arcane details about every aspect of MySQL. The range of topics covered makes it something that will prove useful throughout the reader's experiences with MySQL...if you use MySQL day to day, and you like to have that reference manual laying open on the desk to just the right page, you can't do without 'MySQL Reference Manual.'"
--Owen Leonard, Southeast Ohio Macromedia User Group, Oct 200

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