Rating: 
Summary: Very Useful
Review: When I first got this book I was put off by its size. I mean what developers have time to read books over 400 pages long? And this one is over twice that size. But I started reading it and I found that it is clear and explains things very well. I also found out that I don't need to read the whole book, because it is broken up into different subjects -- really like several books in one book. I am a single independent developer that is working on building a huge PHP, MySQL Web site and I need to know how to use MySQL very effectively and how to optimize what MySQL has to offer. Since I'm outsourcing all my hosting, at this time I don't need to know about MySQL administration, and since I'm only using PHP, I don't need to know about the other APIs, and I can use the appendixes as a reference for functions and such. So I only have to read about 350 pages instead of 1150. And if I find I need to know about MySQL admin or about another API, it's right there. So, I'm happy, and the book is great. I've read 100 pages so far.
Rating: 
Summary: Great as a reference / advanced text
Review: I was already developing mysql & php sites and apps when i purchased this book, so it was a good buy as a reference text, but if you intent to learn Mysql, there are better books than this one.
It is deep, slow to read, with rather small text size. For the beginner, i think it's not a good starter. But on the other hand it has almost everything you would want to know about Mysql, with lots of examples and quite well explained.
I learned Mysql and PHP from Sam's "Php and Mysql web development", and i couldn't recommend that one enough. It's a GREAT text for the beginner. I found myself writing Php/Mysql web sites in less than 3 months, starting from nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Slightly blemished masterpiece
Review: When I got this book, I already had a pretty good knowledge of SQL and databases in general, so I cannot comment on whether or not it is appropriate for complete novices. However, this mammoth improved my knowledge of SQL and MySQL by several orders of magnitude. And to top it off, it is a treat to read. Clear and consice, it's only time consuming because it has over 1200 pages. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about MySQL. It is however, lacking a few very minor areas - the section on SET column types, for example, could contain a note that spaces are not allowed between its values (though they are used regularly throughout the book) as well as an example SELECT statement showing options for finding rows whose SET columns contain (but aren't equal to) a specific value (hint: use FIND_IN_SET() or LIKE '%....%'). The index could be slightly more filled out, and the function/operator reference entries could be enhanced by a single usage/syntax example (though clearly, this is not always necessary.) But overall, these are only very small blemishes on a gargantuan masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: ONLY THE BEST!!!
Review: This book is a "must-have" for the person beginning to use PHP with MySQL for web development. Concise, practical information. Easy to understand. Explanations of commnads and their uses as well as many examples. Well indexed, very easy to find specific information. This book has been invaluable to me in getting database driven applications on the web. This is one of the most thorough books on the subject I have seen to date. Well worth the investment!
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