The Definitive Guide to MySQL 5, Third Edition

I went on a buying spree of technical books a couple months ago. One of the MySQL books I picked up was The Definitive Guide to MySQL 5, Third Edition.

Let me start off by saying I'm a Database Administrator. I'm concerned with one thing; the database. I want to know how it works, how to back it up, how to restore it, how the locking works, how to secure it, and how are transactions handled. I don't care how you connect to the database or what tools you use. I'm beginning to understand MySQL, but know I have plenty more to learn.

The book started to get my interest around Chapter 11 - Access Administration and Security. Security on MySQL is a little different than I'm used to, so I got a lot out of this chapter. I also received a lot of information out of Chapter 14 - Administration and Server Configuration. In fact, this chapter has a pretty extensive discussion on logging and administering the different table types that made the book worth purchasing.

The other sections of the book were excerpts on PHP, connecting MS Office to MySQL, using Java and C++ with MySQL, introductory SQL, introductory database design, and a whole bunch of other things I wasn't looking for on a book about MySQL.

Don't get me wrong, the book was well written. I read the whole book (even the stuff I don't care about) and found it very easy reading. Michael Koffler explains the concepts very clearly and supplements with many examples. If you are a developer who doesn't know anything about what databases mean and you've been thrown into a MySQL environment and need to be a jack-of-all-trades, you will probably get a lot out of this book. Maybe I'm just not the target audience.