SQL for MySQL Developers: A Comprehensive Tutorial and Reference (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Most Complete and Practical Guide to MySQL Version 5’s Powerful SQL Dialect

 

MySQL version 5 offers a SQL dialect with immense power. In SQL for MySQL Developers, Rick F. van der Lans helps you master this version ofSQL and take advantage of its full potential. Using case study examplesand hands-on exercises, van der Lans illuminates every key concept,technique, and statement–including advanced features that make iteasier to create even the most complex statements and programs.

 

Drawing on decades of experience as an SQL standards team member and enterprise consultant, he reveals exactly why MySQL’s dialect works as it does–and how to get the most out of it. You’ll gain powerful insight into everything from basic queries to stored procedures, transactions to data security.

 

Whether you’re a programmer, Web developer, analyst, DBA, or database user, this book can take you from “apprentice” to true SQL expert. If you’ve used SQL in older versions of MySQL, you’ll become dramatically more effective–and if you’re migrating from other database platforms, you’ll gain practical mastery fast.

 

Coverage includes

• Writing queries, including joins, functions, and subqueries
• Updating data
• Creating tables, views, and other database objects
• Specifying keys and other integrity constraints
• Improving efficiency with indexes
• Enforcing security via passwords and privileges
• Embedding SQL statements within PHP programs
• Building stored procedures and triggers
• Using transactions, locking, rollback, and isolation levels
• Utilizing MySQL’s catalog

All of the book’s sample programs are available for download from www.r20.nl.

 

About the Author

Rick F. van der Lans is author of the classic Introduction to SQL, the definitive SQL guide that database developers have relied on for more than 20 years. He is a consultant, author, and lecturer specializing in database technology, development tools, data warehousing, and XML. As managing director of the Netherlands-based R20/Consultancy, he has advised many large companies on defining their IT architectures. He chairs the European Meta Data Conference, and writes columns for several magazines.

 

Contents

About the Author  

Preface    

PART I Introduction    

CHAPTER 1 Introduction to MySQL    

CHAPTER 2 The Tennis Club Sample Database    

CHAPTER 3 Installing the Software    

CHAPTER 4 SQL in a Nutshell    

PART II Querying and Updating Data     

CHAPTER 5 SELECT Statement: Common Elements    

CHAPTER 6 SELECT Statements, Table Expressions, and Subqueries    

CHAPTER 7 SELECT Statement:The FROM Clause    

CHAPTER 8 SELECT Statement: The WHERE Clause    

CHAPTER 9 SELECT Statement: SELECT Clause and Aggregation Functions    

CHAPTER 10 SELECT Statement: The GROUP BY Clause    

CHAPTER 11 SELECT Statement: The HAVING Clause    

CHAPTER 12 SELECT Statement: The ORDER BY Clause    

CHAPTER 13 SELECT Statement: The LIMIT Clause    

CHAPTER 14 Combining Table Expressions    

CHAPTER 15 The User Variable and the SET Statement    

CHAPTER 16 The HANDLER Statement    

CHAPTER 17 Updating Tables    

CHAPTER 18 Loading and Unloading Data    

CHAPTER 19 Working with XML Documents    

PART III Creating Database Objects     

CHAPTER 20 Creating Tables    

CHAPTER 21 Specifying Integrity Constraints    

CHAPTER 22 Character Sets and Collations    

CHAPTER 23 The ENUM and SET Types    

CHAPTER 24 Changing and Dropping Tables    

CHAPTER 25 Using Indexes    

CHAPTER 26 Views    

CHAPTER 27 Creating Databases    

CHAPTER 28 Users and Data Security    

CHAPTER 29 Statements for Table Maintenance    

CHAPTER 30 The SHOW, DESCRIBE, and HELP Statements    

PART IV Procedural Database Objects     

CHAPTER 31 Stored Procedures    

CHAPTER 32 Stored Functions    

CHAPTER 33 Triggers    

CHAPTER 34 Events    

PART V Programming with SQL     

CHAPTER 35 MySQL and PHP    

CHAPTER 36 Dynamic SQL with Prepared Statement    

CHAPTER 37 Transactions and Multiuser Usage    

APPENDIX A Syntax of SQL    

APPENDIX B Scalar Functions    

APPENDIX C System Variables    

APPENDIX D Bibliography    

Index    

About the Author

Rick F. van der Lans is author of the classic Introduction to SQL, the definitive SQL guide that database developers have relied on for more than 20 years. He is a consultant, author, and lecturer specializing in database technology, development tools, data warehousing, and XML. As managing director of the Netherlands-based R20/Consultancy, he has advised many large companies on defining their IT architectures. He chairs the European Meta Data Conference, and writes columns for several magazines.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1032 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (April 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131497359
• ISBN-13: 978-0131497351
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #235,975 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent translated guide to MySQL, June 3, 2007

By	R. Mullen "MedeaTor" (MI, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Over the last 5 years, I would say I've at least read every book available on MySQL and bought my fair share.

This book is by far the best one available on some of the advanced features of MySQL. It's better than even the Bible and Cookbook series on things like stored procedures, even though it spends too much time on the basics. I loved the large text, but wish there had been more meat on stored procedures, triggers and events (which is why I picked it up to begin with). There are insider knowledge gems sprinkled throughout that will definitely add spice to your SQL, so it's worth a look.

I don't know why even in 2007 authors insist on repeating the MySQL documentation,--it's a MASSIVE amount of wasted space, since anyone using this stuff will be familiar with the online documentation and helpful user commentary. There were a few typos, but that's pretty par for the course. The section on PHP, though, was pretty useless and not particularly good code-wise (in my humble opinion).

One day someone will put out a really advanced cookbook, that doesn't waste space explaining super simple things like "select * from table," but until then it's a great resource. If you can get it at a discount, like on a Borders reward coupon (which they give out like candy) grab it. Clearly, the Europeans still have something to teach us about MySQL! :o))

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 9 chapters just on SELECT; wow!, May 6, 2007

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Van der Lans offers an impressively thorough education in MySQL 5. It is remarkable how much capability is offered for free in the open source MySQL. The book can also be used to learn generic SQL from scratch. Some early chapters give a quick recap, that should be understandable to an experienced programmer, who does not know SQL. If this describes you, the biggest adjustment to learning it might be its declarative nature, as opposed to the procedural ethos of most programming languages.

One striking feature of the book is the extensive explanation of SELECT. This is the key statement of SQL, and you need to be facile with it. Nine [sic] chapters are devoted to SELECT. Gives you some idea of both the power and complexity of the command. Rarely do other SQL books allocate so much space to a rendition of SELECT. Often, they teach you the basic modes of using it, and then you are left on your own. (Gee, thanks!) Whereas here, for example, an entire chapter is about the SELECT HAVING clause, and another chapter is on the SELECT LIMIT clause. Across these nine chapters are enough worked examples that you can fruitfully mine.

Later chapters delve into more specialised aspects of SQL. Sure, these are all significant. But maybe the most useful is the idea of stored procedures and functions. Vital to optimising performance.

Lest this very mass of detail prove offputting, keep in mind the "Reference" in the book's title. You don't have to read it all at once. As you go thru it, you should develop an intuition of what can be safely relegated to a later reading, when you have specific need of those topics.

1.0 out of 5 stars Weak Book. Not edited and not translated well, April 22, 2009

By	Zach SQL (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Pretty disappointed with the book. I don't think anyone took the time to edit it or review the translations and context of the translations. I have read many other SQL books that were much easier to understand and were better at explaining complex tasks.

The beginning of chapter 18 starts out: "The opposite of loading data is, obviously, loading data." Is this for real?

I want my money back. I recommend getting a different book. At $40+ this book is not worth half that.