Rating: 
Summary: Horrible!!
Review: This certainly the worst book on computers that I've ever seen. O'Reilly, do something about this NOW!!
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: Very disappointing. O'Reilly books generally mean quality but this one is terrible. It's poorly organized and the idea of covering both MySQL and mSQL in the same book simply doesn't work. Most people will be using one or the other and will be flipping back and forth trying to find the relevant chapters. What information there is is not particularly useful or insightful, consisting mostly of technical references which are done much better on the MySQL site. Not recommended.Instead of this book, I would go with:
The Practical SQL handbook- for general learning about SQL
MySQL by Paul DuBois and depending on whether you plan to use PHP or Perl:
MySQL and Perl for the Web by Paul DuBois
PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson
Rating:
Summary: Terrible.
Review: I haven't seen a book this bad from ORA before. It's sketchy, incomplete, and almost totally useless to anyone actually wanting to use the programs. I'd definitely avoid any book written by these authors in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Too broad -- not enough detail
Review: Trusting in the O'Reilly standard of books does not help here.
The main problem with the book is that it covers two different
databases. Unless you are planning on using both mSQL and mySQL,
this book will not cover in enough detail the single database you plan to use.I would recommend buying a different book which focuses completely on either database. On the positve size, the book does provide material on how
to access from Perl, PHP, Java, C/C++, and Python. Again though
the material suffers since it tries to cover both APIs.
Rating:
Summary: Worst Book from O'Reill
Review: This is the worst O'Reilly book ever. It made me not use MySQL for over a year. I switched to PostgreSQL instead. No step by step on how to add users, etc. I did think the Perl-DBI/DBD part was good, but it was useless because of the early chapters.
I'm not saying the book was dog, but it does chase cars and eat kibble.
Rating: 
Summary: One good chapter
Review: It's hard to decide how many stars to give this book -- overall the book is a disappoinment, but there is one chapter on database design that really makes the book worthwhile. Chapter 2 gives an excellent introduction to the normalization process involved in creating a good relational database design, and it's something every database person, especially beginners, should read. It's all theory that can be applied to any relational database, not just mySQL or mSQL. Unfortunately the rest of the book is disconnected, out-of-date, and generally a waste of trees. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I was disappointed to see such a book come from O'Reilly. You would be better off with the DuBois MySQL book, or one of the many books that cover MySQL and PHP.
Rating:
Summary: Too much promises
Review: The title of the book is intriguing, after all, MySQL is almost the de
facto database for the Internet today (anoter player PostgreSQL in their
recent versions have radically improved too, stay tuned. This book is kinda
okay for a novice user who just wants to grasp a packet which includes:
some database background and design, some SQL language, some Perl/DBI, some
Java/JDBC, very little Pyhon, More on C/C++ interface to MySQL, little bit
of GCI to show some Web thingies... Well. That's about all. After reading the book, you have the ideas ready,
but you can't really extend your knowledge by returning to the book later.
This book is "read it once" and "forget forever", because it lacks the
essentials of any quality book that O'Reilly used to publish. The content
should be much more deeper, show much more focused examples. The authors have C/C++ background and it shown on dedicating the
biggest part on the MySQL interface to C++ (Chapter 13, 30 pages),
Chapter 14 covers Java/JDBC and it contains 12 pages. From Chapter 15 on, pages 231 - 500, the book contains pure SQL and other
API listings. Can you imagine that? They were out of date the minute the
book come fomr the press. Any book company that let this horrid to happen
should get a slap in their hands. Including the API listing may make the
book look nice in the shelf, but the authors could have filled those 250
with better and deeper database interface examles using the programming langues covered in book. No cookie, bad and lazy authors, *slap*. If you want to get serious, Get New Riders's MySQL book,
specific other books for Perl DBD/DBI or Java/JDBC
programming and you're much better equipped for years.
Rating:
Summary: Useless useless useless
Review: I can't believe the people who give this book favorable reviews....there's nothing in this book!!! It's basically a syntax/function manual that you can get online for free. It may be, as some say, "a valuable reference," but so what???? Would you buy a dictionary to learn to speak English? No, you need to buy a book that explains how to speak English. For beginners who want to use PHP too, I'd recommend Meloni's books, especially PHP Fast & Easy, which will get you started on both PHP and MySQL, as the title says, fast & easy. Other than that, the New Rider's book by Paul DuBois is a great source of explanations and examples for MYSQL, reasonably clear, although I wouldn't recommend it as the only book for a beginner -- start with Meloni and be ready to move on to DuBois within a couple weeks. Another winner is SAM's PHP and MySQL Web Development. In 6 months of working with MySQL and PHP, I've used Yarger's book 2 or 3 times, and I use the others all day every day. Let's put it this way, either DuBois's book or the SAM's book have 10 times the material and much much better explanation than Yarger's.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Reference
Review: This is a great reference book that I use all the time.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, if you can work through the errors
Review: I have used O'Reilly books for a few years now. And, I have loved them all. Except for the mySQL and mSQL book. Fortunately, I knew some SQL prior to reading this book. This book is a good reference manual for datatypes and the basic SQL statements. Other than that, it is a big, expensive paperweight. It is full of errors. The Perl DBI section is almost unusable due to the huge number of errors in the chapter. Also, this book explains what a certain function does. But, gives you no examples on how to implement it. See mysqldump or mysqlimport. God help the newbie who wants to start learning mySQL and trys to learn much from this book. This book is the worst thing that O'Reilly has put out to date. O'Reilly usually publishes some of the better reference books out there. This time they messed up really bad. A much better choice is MySQL -- New Riders by Paul DuBois. This guy really knows his stuff. Come on O'Reilly, pull this error ridden book from the market and start from scratch. Maybe this time you can get it right.
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