MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Books and Other Publications

Besides the mailing list archives mentioned in the previous section, MySQL AB provides extensive online documentation of the MySQL server and all of the other software it distributes. You can find the documentation at http://dev.mysql.com/doc. The documentation is now organized by version of MySQL. You can read the material online or download it in a few different formats (e.g., HTML or PDF). It is also available in hardcopy format: MySQL Language Reference and MySQL Administrator’s Guide, both from MySQL Press.

In addition to this book, O’Reilly Media publishes a few other books on MySQL worth buying and reading. O’Reilly’s mainline MySQL book is Managing & Using MySQL (2nd ed., 2002) by George Reese, Randy Jay Yarger, and Tim King (with Hugh E. Williams). George Reese has compiled a smaller version called MySQL Pocket Reference (2nd ed., 2007). For common practical problem solving, there’s MySQL Cookbook (2nd ed., 2006) by Paul DuBois. For advice on optimizing MySQL and performing administrative tasks, such as backing up databases, O’Reilly has published High Performance MySQL (2004) by Jeremy D. Zawodny and Derek J. Balling.

O’Reilly also publishes several books with regard to the MySQL APIs. For PHP development with MySQL, there’s Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL (2nd ed., 2004) by Hugh E. Williams and David Lane. For interfacing with Perl to MySQL and other database systems, there’s Programming the Perl DBI (2000) by Alligator Descartes and Tim Bunce. To interface to MySQL with Java, you can use the JDBC and JConnector drivers and George Reese’s book, Database Programming with JDBC and Java (2nd ed., 2000).

In addition to the published books on MySQL, a few web sites offer brief tutorials on using MySQL topics. The O’Reilly Network often publishes articles on MySQL and the APIs for Perl, PHP, and Python in its online publication ONLamp.com (http://www.onlamp.com/onlamp/general/mysql.csp). Incidentally, I’ve contributed a few articles to that site and to several other publications on MySQL and related topics. MySQL AB also provides some in-depth articles on MySQL. You can find them in the DevZone section of its web site, http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles. Many of these articles deal with new products and features, making them ideal if you want to learn about using the latest releases available even while they’re still in the testing stages. Developer Shed (http://www.devarticles.com/c/b/MySQL) is an additional educational resource. All of these online publications are subscription-free. If you are a MySQL Enterprise customer, though, you can get information about MySQL from its private Knowledge Base, of which I am currently the editor.