MySQL: The Complete Reference [Format Kindle]

I highly recommend anyone working with MySQL in any capacity to pick up a copy of MySQL: The Complete Reference; it's the most thorough, easy to follow, well laid out book on the subject I've seen (and I have several computer texts, many of which deal with MySQL in some way or other). Every facet of MySQL is covered: system admin, table types and structure, data types, basic to advanced SQL syntax. There are sections dealing with new features in v4.1 (still considered under development as of this writing) such as subqueries (which are going to be a huge help) and other new methods for handling data. My favorite parts of the book are the nested sidebars that have tricks and tips for doing things in one of several different ways, most of which I've never seen before.

The most impressive feature of the book, in my opinion, is the balance between visual examples and technical detail. Usually you find a computer text is strong in one or the other; the author Vikram Vaswani has done an excellent job in illustrating his talent to show the end user exactly what he / she needs to see to understand the task at hand, not to mention his depth of knowledge on the subject. The book has MySQL's logo on it for a reason, people.

I had personally put off purchasing a book on MySQL, instead relying on online documentation and tutorials. When I realized I wasn't moving in the right direction, I took a look at several available texts and chose this one. Even though I've been working with MySQL for over a year, after having read a majority of the book, I can honestly say I've easily doubled my understanding of syntax and the inner workings of MySQL in the past two weeks. Less than half an hour after reading the chapter on JOINS, I was able to construct a complex combination of self and left join that had been eluding me. I'm currently going through several tables and scripts, optimising table structure and syntax based on lessons learned. I only wish I bought two copies, as mine is already dogeared and worn from taking the trip back and forth from home to the office every day!

If you only take one thing away from this review, let it be this: you WILL learn MySQL from this book!!

I've learned a lot from Vaswani. I think he has done an outstanding job of cataloging and summarizing MySQL. You can go to the very good index and find a few references, then find what you need. To me, a good index is a top priority, & Vaswani did a pretty good job with the index.

I did find a few subjects which need more depth, but most subjects were covered well enough to answer my questions.

This 4 star rating is from the perspective of a beginning to intermediate web application developer. My purpose in buying this book was to get from a basic SQL knowledge (via a local community college Oracle class) to a better understanding of MySQL, to use with PHP etc. I am not a systems administrator and have no desire to be one. Just wanted to use MySQL on a couple business projects, and MySQL Complete Reference has definitely helped.

I think it is an excellent choice for a beginning to intermediate LAMP or MySQL application developer. For an application developer, I highly recommend it.

Note: This book only covers through MySQL 4.1, so I would recommend another book if you plan on moving to MySQL 5.0 or higher (which you should).

This is a good introduction for MySQL users who have not read through a MySQL book before, and need somebody to help them work through reasonably complicated concepts in plain English. It's also a good book for people who have worked through online documentation but want to integrate the bits and pieces they've picked up from other places.

It has copious and easy-to-follow examples, and if you read it through, you will become confident using MySQL's basic and intermediate functionalities.

This book is not as good when it gets to more advanced topics. Part of that is due to the fact that it only covers MySQL through version 4.1, so many of the more advanced features in verison 5.0 like stored procedures and triggers are not covered at all (nor is the mysqli extension for PHP covered in the PHP section of the book). Also, a number of features that were available in 4.1, like transactions, are not covered in enough detail. For example, while a basic example of a transaction is given, I don't think that this book contains enough real-world examples for determining what specific transaction isolation level one would choose in a given circumstance. The discussion of isolation levels relies on theoretical graphs instead.

For a current purchaser, I'd give this 3 stars - good for a beginner or intermediate reader, not as good for an advanced reader. I would give it 4 stars but it's out of date so I wouldn't recommend it for most current purchasers.