Rating: 
Summary: Poorly edited, poorly designed, and poorly put together
Review: Don't buy this book. Go buy "MySQL" by Michael Widenius (New Riders Publishing). It's the best MySQL book out there. The O'Reilly Netshell book by Yarger, Reeses, and King is second. This book is a *distant* third out of three.I was shocked at the number of typos and other editing errors. I found many of the sections to be poorly glossed over. A good example would be db backups. The first, last and most important thing any DBA should know is how to backup data and restore that data. The section on backups was cursory and lacking important details. --log-update was mentioned for incremental backups, but how/when the logs should be flushed wasn't metioned. I would have preferred to see an entire crontab, incremental+full backup sequence including a restore from one day or a restore of the entire data. Another very light brushing over was optimization. At least one paragraph could have been spent to give the user ideas on how MySQL will benefit from putting logs, tables, and indices on multiple disks, rather than dismissing the reader to go research somewhere else. The auhor had another excellent opportunity to help the reader understand how queries are handled by a deeper discussion on optimizing the WHERE clause in queries. But this section received less than half a page and delt only with the unlikely situation of a single index being searched on. The coverpage reads, "Learn the skills and conepts to *master* MYSQL...". This is a gross overstatement of what this book will give you. I would have sent it back to Amazon.com if working out the shipping wasn't such a pain. Not worth the money. You would better spend your time throwing playing cards in a hat.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you trying to fool who?
Review: First of all it's a pitty since normally all the PHP books are good, but this one has typos since chapter 1. Imagine trying to learn a new computer language that has TYPOS in it. You just can't get anything done.
Then they say they will touch a subject further in the book, but they never do that, instead they confuse you giving code for linux in the windows section, and code for windows in the linux one.
Finally they direct you to a web site that at least in my copy, not only was an invalid web site, but when you try to look for the book in Pearson Education, it tells you they can't locate the book.
PATHETICAL, this book is a joke.
Rating: 
Summary: Good starter book, but tons of errors.
Review: I have to say, I love the teach yourself series from SAMS. They are always a comforting way to learn a new computer language. This book is pretty much the same, as far as it got me up and running in just a week, however, I do have many gripes with the book. First of all, there are a ton of problems with the commands you are supposed to type. About 3-5% of them are incorrect. They are only minor problems like putting TABLE in the "CREATE tablename;" command and stuff like that, but for a newbie, those mistakes are unforgiveable. They were easy to get around, only because you have to get the command to work in order to get to the next section. Which leads to my second gripe. If you like to follow through these books from the beginning to end, you might have trouble here and there because the author will issue an action, like rename this table to another name, then two paragraphs letter, you are asked to perform an action on that table with the OLD name. Not a biggie, but still annoying if you want to get through the book in 21 days. I still like the book though, but geez, where's the editor? Did they lay-off their editing staff at SAMS?
Rating:
Summary: Very Poor Text
Review: I learned about enough to convince those unfamiliar with MySQL that I know what I'm doing - although I don't! The examples are full of mistakes. For example, on several occasions the author says he's about to do one thing, then does something totally different. If he gave better explanations of how the syntax works, instead of just telling you to do it, you may have better luck decyphering the errors. Since he doesn't, however, it leaves you on your own to figure out what exactly he's up to? Honestly, learning an entirely new language is hard enough without trying to locate and decypher the mistakes of an "Expert". Save your money.
Rating: 
Summary: easy to understand
Review: I thought that this book would teach me the basics of MySQL in a relatively short time. While I did learn some things, I spent most of my time figuring out how the author got from one step to the next. There were numerous typos in the code that left me, as a beginner, scratching my head. Most SAMS books are great, but not this one.
Rating:
Summary: easy to understand
Review: This book doesnt waste time with all the little details and just talks about the major points. Want to be a MySQL guru? Then this books is NOT for you.
However, if you are know how to code and how to use flat files then this book is for you and will teach you how to code your scripts with the use of MySQL database.
Yes there are some typos like others pointed out but who uses the codes word for word from the book? You should know the basics of scripting language like Perl or PHP before buying this book. And you might want to buy a book about SQL.
This book isn't here to teach you Perl, PHP or SQL so making small errors in those codes shouldn't affect your buying decision.
This book teaches MySQL database nice and simply and I still use it as a referrence after 2 years of working with MySQL.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written and full of errors
Review: This book is poorly written (I can't believe an editor even looked at it!) and full of sloppy errors. Even it this wasn't the case, it would not compare well with other more authoritative and accurate title's such as "MySQL" by Paul DuBois.
Rating:
Summary: CODE ALL WRONG
Review: This book just doesn't live up to half of my expectations. The author just says : do this, do that whithout a lot of explanation. Furthermore, the CODE is ALL WRONG in this book. I like the other 'STY in 21 days' books but I'm sorry I bought this one. Wrong Code : p. 63 : INSERT INTO mysql... should be INSERT INTO host (see figure 4.6) p. 64 : INSERT INTO user... 'Y') should be INSERT INTO USER... 'Y'); p. 64 : INSERT INTO db ... 'Y') should be INSERT INTO db ... 'Y'); p. 79 : Smoker CHAR(0) should be Smoker ENUM('Y','N') DEFAULT 'N' (see figure 6.2) p. 82 : USE DATABASE Temp; should be USE Temp; p. 84 : DROP tablename; should be DROP TABLE tablename; p. 85 : DROP Customers should be DROP TABLE Customers; ... And I'm only at Day 6 ...
Rating:
Summary: This is the second worst PC related book i've ever read
Review: Two thirds of the book are about nothing. If the book was completed only on 100 or 150 pages ("the best of"), i could give 3 stars.. It is a bit chaotic ordered, there are mistakes in that book and author often uses magic formulas "If you need do this, do this: ...". The book is much more about How, not Why. If you have some experiences with programming in any language, buying subj. is only wasting money..
Rating:
Summary: This is the second worst PC related book i've ever read
Review: Two thirds of the book are about nothing. If the book was completed only on 100 or 150 pages ("the best of"), i could give 3 stars.. It is a bit chaotic ordered, there are mistakes in that book and author often uses magic formulas "If you need do this, do this: ...". The book is much more about How, not Why. If you have some experiences with programming in any language, buying subj. is only wasting money..
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