Beginning MySQL

As the most popular open source database system in the world, MySQL boasts ease of implementation, minimal overhead, consistent reliability, and low total cost of ownership. This hands-on resource offers you a complete look at MySQL and explains how to implement MySQL and access MySQL with various programming languages.

Using a task-oriented approach along with numerous helpful examples, this book takes you through the steps necessary to install MySQL 4.1 on Linux and Windows platforms, create and manage MySQL databases, query and manipulate data, and administer the MySQL database management system. By the end of the book you'll have a solid foundation for understanding MySQL as a robust, flexible, and easy-to-implement application that has many diverse uses.

What you will learn from this book

• Where to find MySQL components on your system and what tools are available to access and manipulate data
• How to set up logging, manage security, optimize performance, and back up and restore your system
• Ways to insert, update, copy, import, export, and delete data
• How to access a MySQL database from within a specific programming language
• Effective methods for establishing a connection to a database and issuing SQL statements

About the Authors

Robert Sheldon's MySQL programming is rooted in ten years of experience working with SQL, as it is implemented not only in a MySQL environment, but also within SQL Server, Microsoft Access, and Oracle environments. He has programmed with SQL directly through database interfaces and script files and indirectly through PHP, JSP, ASP, and ASP.NET applications that connected to various databases and issued SQL statements. Robert has also managed the maintenance and development of Web sites and online tools, which has included performing project analysis, developing functional specifications, and managing database and Web development. He has designed and implemented various Microsoft Access, SQL Server, and MySQL databases, as well as developed and implemented a variety of Web-based solutions. In all these roles, he has had to perform numerous types of ad hoc queries and modifications, build databases, create and modify database objects, create and review embedded statements, and troubleshoot system- and data-related problems.

In addition to having a technical and SQL background, Robert has written or co-written nine books on various network and server technologies, including two that have focused on SQL Server design and implementation, one on SQL programming (based on the SQL:1999 standard), and one on Microsoft Office Access 2003. The books that Robert has written contain training material that is designed to teach users specific skills and to test their knowledge of the material covered. Having contracted as the senior developmental editor for the Microsoft certification team, he brought to these books his experience developing exam items that helped to focus readers on the skills necessary to perform specific tasks. Robert has also written and edited a variety of other documentation related to SQL databases and other computer technologies. He works as an independent technical consultant and writer in the Seattle area.

Geoff Moes is a software architect and developer who has designed and implemented databases in MySQL as well as having designed and implemented software systems in PHP, Java/J2EE, and ASP.NET that have utilized MySQL databases through various database connectivity interfaces. Geoff received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and has worked in the software industry for 18 years. He specializes in software and database architecture and development as it relates to Web- based systems. He has worked with several database products in addition to MySQL, including SQL Server, DB2, and Oracle. He has also developed a variety of software applications that have connected to various databases using several different languages and platforms including Java J2EE/JDBC/EJB, C++/ODBC, and ASP.NET/ODBC/OLEDB.

Geoff's publishing credits include "Passing Arrays Between Jscript and C++" (September 7, 2000, ASPToday.com, under WROX) and three articles published in Windows & .NET Magazine (online): "Common Internet Hacker Attacks" (December 1, 1998), "Remote Web Administration, Part 2" (November 1, 1998), and "Remote Web Administration, Part 1" (October 1, 1998). Geoff works as an independent software consultant in the Washington D.C. metro area.