5 comments about MySQL(TM): The Complete Reference.

1. Unlike most computer-related books, this one actually makes sense. The author has a no-nonsense approach to getting points across that most computer "authors" lack. It's very well organized and it's oriented to the beginner/intermediate audience. As a computer scientist myself, I found this book to quite welcoming and easy to find specific subjects in it. I was up and running in about three days. I created my first MySQL database and had it well-tuned in about a week or so, which is remarkable because I hadn't had any MySQL experience up to that point. Very solid, helpful book. Highly recommend.



2. This is a useless book, perhaps this could be useful for a newbie to know what MySQL is. I never recommend this book even for a moderate developer.
   
   This book doesn't solve the issue or DON'T EVENT HINT installing multiple instances of MySQL servers, specially on Linux environment.
   
   The performance optimisation and administrative details placed on this book are very little and yet they are very abstract.
   
   i bought this book to save time, for administrative /configuration/performance optimisation purpose BUT I FOUND NOTHING USEFUL.
   
   You don't find any reference to the use of the Password() function and password comparision.
   
   Also the significant part of this book is, it doesn't have anything useful for a administrator, who wants to optimise and hack the power of MySql.
   
   we're paying for a techie book like this, not to see the Mysql manual duplicated, but to see more value added features which comes with the experience of the auther+++++ which this book has compromised and beatifully lets down those who seek more depths in mysql.
   
   MySql official manual is still the best , save your $$$$ don't buy this book get the MySql manual at
   http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/index.html
   
   Tyronne Bershath Wickramarathne



3. I've learned a lot from Vaswani. I think he has done an outstanding job of cataloging and summarizing MySQL. You can go to the very good index and find a few references, then find what you need. To me, a good index is a top priority, & Vaswani did a pretty good job with the index.
   
   I did find a few subjects which need more depth, but most subjects were covered well enough to answer my questions.
   
   This 4 star rating is from the perspective of a beginning to intermediate web application developer. My purpose in buying this book was to get from a basic SQL knowledge (via a local community college Oracle class) to a better understanding of MySQL, to use with PHP etc. I am not a systems administrator and have no desire to be one. Just wanted to use MySQL on a couple business projects, and MySQL Complete Reference has definitely helped.
   
   I think it is an excellent choice for a beginning to intermediate LAMP or MySQL application developer. For an application developer, I highly recommend it.



4. This book provides a good and clear overview of the subject of MySQL. This is a thick book that covers a lot of material. The last Chapters even provided introductions to application development with C, PERL and PHP. MySQL: The complete Reference really seemed like an actual complete reference. While it may not go to deep into every subject it does at least briefly cover each topic. Most of the focus was on SQL (Structured Query Language) though.
   
   There were only a few minor issues with this book aside from minor grammatical errors. For one thing, you would occasionally have to modify the sample tables before you could even start the exercise. Also, it would have been nice having more sample tables and data so I could follow along in more of the examples. Frequently, my result set wouldn't quite match the one in the book. Additionally, some of the command wouldn't even execute or would return an error message. Lastly, the chapters on development were pretty useless unless you are already familiar with one of the languages.
   
   But, I believe many of the above problems where because of version differences and the fact that I was running MySQL on windows. Although windows instructions were given as well the book examples were still more oriented towards a UNIX installation. Also, MySQL would be several versions newer on my computer. I believe that made a difference on some of the results as well. And for windows administration its better just to use one of the suggested GUI programs since many of the commands were difficult to run from the command prompt.
   
   So, I wasn't quite able to follow along with all the examples for one reason or another. Nevertheless, there were still plenty of quality examples I could follow along in. In addition, there was still a lot to learn from just reading through the material. Overall, this book works well as a reference or for working the Chapters in order. Even though the book's user level isn't indicated I believe it provides a fine introduction for a beginner.



5. This is a good introduction for MySQL users who have not read through a MySQL book before, and need somebody to help them work through reasonably complicated concepts in plain English. When I bought this book, I had already used MySQL queries from PHP, attempted to read the MySQL manual, and had read a few web resources on MySQL. But I felt insecure about the technology, and wanted a book to help me integrate all of my knowledge.
   
   I think this book succeeded at that. It has copious and easy-to-follow examples, and if you read it through, you will become very confident using MySQL's basic and intermediate functionalities.
   
   This book is not as good when it gets to more advanced topics. Part of that is due to the fact that it only covers MySQL through version 4.1, so many of the more advanced features in verison 5.0 like stored procedures and triggers are not covered at all (nor is the mysqli extension for PHP covered). Also, a number of features that were available in 4.1, like transactions, are not covered in enough detail. For example, while a basic example of a transaction is given, I don't think that this book contains enough real-world examples for determining what specific transaction isolation level one would choose in a given circumstance. The discussion of isolation levels relies on theoretical graphs instead.
   
   If an updated version were published that covered these more refined aspects of MySQL in greater detail, then I think it would be worthy of 4 stars (or perhaps 5 if they did it really well). As is, I give it 3 stars: great for a beginner or intermediate tutorial, not as good as a reference once you've passed that point.

5 comments about Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming (Programmer to Programmer).

1. If you ever read this book: Joe Sack' SQL server 2000 Fast Answers for DBA and Developer, then you will see Vieira's book misses so many details about SQL server 2000. Understanding that this book focuses on PROGRAMMING only, but still it misses many PROGRAMMING DETAILS of SQL server 2000. I do not have no connection to Joe Sack's business. I read and compare the two and speak out my mind.



2. I have this book and I can say it is the best SQL Server book I have ever read. It may even be the best Development/Computer book I have. Every chapter is easy to read, detailed and concise. The coverage is phenomenal. I use this for reference quite a bit. The only thing that is missing is more detail on DTS... but that is a book in itself.



3. Excellent book, but the font is VERY small which makes reading difficult even though I do not have vision problems.



4. In general the book is ok. The author needed to make more research in some areas and not made use only of his own experience.
   
   He does not mention about the issues with no following ANSI 92. The stored procedures and the trigger parts are really boring.
   
   Sometimes the book is good but the author likes to move into areas he should not or he is not proficient enough. His comments on normalization and security are sometimes so strong that I tend to think that this guy is watching just one side of the coin.
   
   Ed



5. By far, this is the best overall MS SQL 2000 server book written until today. Most topics are covered from basic to advance level. This book is a must have for anyone who is looking to get a well rounded knowledge of what's possible with MS SQL 2000.
   
   The chapters I liked the most are:
   Ch9 SQL Server Storage and Index Structures
   Ch10 Views
   Ch12 Stored Procedures
   Ch15 Triggers
   Ch16 Advanced Queries
   Ch26 Full-Text Search
   Ch29 Performance Tuning
   All Appendixes
   
   Noticed that I said "best overall" & "Most topics"; this book will not have an answer for very advance topics in areas like DTS, performance tuning, XML, & Analysis Services. There are great books out there if what you are looking for is not in Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming. The "Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS" is the best I have read when it comes to Data Transformation Services. For performance tuning and XML you may find books written by Ken Henderson to be among the best. For Analysis Services I have not found one book I will recommend yet.

5 comments about Crystal Reports 8.5: The Complete Reference.

1. As you become more and more proficient, this book is more and more frustrating. There are so many things just touched on and not explained or not in the book at all!



2. I purchased this book as a reference. Fortunately, I had a separate training course for learning the Crystal application. And I now teach the product.

   It's a good reference. I truly haven't had a question yet regarding basic or advanced procedures in the application that I couldn't find. But I would not recommend it for learning the application. It is dense.

   I'm also disappointed that it is not very different from the CR 8.0 manual published by Crystal Decisions. The layout and procession of the book are virtually the same! It could have included more tutorials, too.

   One thing that I would love for any CR reference/manual to include is a list and description of all the formulas in the system. To my knowledge, this does not exist anywhere, even in Crystal's own documentation.

   PURCHASING RECOMMENDATION
   If you need a solid reference and didn't purchase manuals with Crystal, this will work. If you need to learn the product, get something else.




3. I develop financial reporting applications for various companies using VB and VBA. Recently I have completed a financial reporting system completely within Access 2000 making extensive uses of Access's report objects.

   Although the Access report object does its job well, it lacks a lot of power features, i.e., limited grouping capabilities, formula in text boxes is limited to a simply expression unless you make a call to UFD, then you would loss your object encapsulation, etc, The Data Report object is VB6 is still some what of a joke, but let not open this can of worms. Thus, I have chosen Crystals reports for my developing needs.

   I find George Peck's Complete Reference series very helpful. The book has 800 pages to teach me every nuance of Crystal. This book does not teach me anything about VB coding nor does it contain a reference to the object model within the RDC or any of the other object models in Crystal. I didn't buy this book to learn how to code. The author noted in page 659 specifically that the book is not meant to teach you Visual Basic.

   Overall, this book gets me up to speed quickly and it's a good reference source for my future needs. Personally, I don't find the crystal help files very helpful.




4. After reading positive reviews of this title, I decided to purchase the complete reference and was extremely disappointed. The most common problem with crystal books (or any other software application manual-excel, access, etc.) is that the author try's to appeal to all crystal report's users. There are generally three types of software user's out their, 1. database administrator/computer programmers who want reference manuals with excellent indexes. 2. Basic users who can get by with your classic "for dummies" title. 3. User's who don't understand VBA or SQL but want to be able to create reasonably advanced adhoc reports.
   This title is to basic for the database administrator who would have to read 4 pages of babble to find the specific piece of information they need. There are no practice assignments for the beginner/intermediate report writer to do just that "practice". And when you do find a title that contains tutorials/assignments they are often to basic and lack real relevance in the business world. With the number of access, excel, crystal, etc. titles on the market you would think that there would be enough room to specifically appeal to the different types of software user's out their.



5. I frequently use these reviews to select books of all types. I consider myself a power user able to learn rapidly from good texts. This book has not been very helpful for my work in Crystal Reports.
   
   I need to be able to program Crystal Reports to perform a variety of complex reporting on databases that are completely denormalized. Thus, the ability to parse strings and execute stored procedures is critical.
   
   This book completely fails to provide the information about built-in commands that I need. For instance, no information about string commands is present. No discussion of the use of arrays in Crystal Reports is provided.
   
   I was deeply disappointed with this book.

4 comments about Oracle Database 10g XML & SQL: Design, Build, & Manage XML Applications in Java, C, C++, & PL/SQL (Osborne ORACLE Press Series).

1. I wish more books were written like this. When you read it you understand that a team of high professional people have worked on it. The book is organized to be useful for developers, DBAs, managers. You'll find here everything you need: XML & SQL, XSQL , XSLT, XML in PL/SQL, Java, C, C++. I highly recommend this book.



2. This book covers everything on how to develop XML applications based on the Oracle XML infrastructure. It also provides the readers with a lot of samples on how to utilize the technology. No matter you are an advanced professional or a fresh graduate, if you are interested in XML-related Oracle application development, personally I think this is a must-have book.



3. This book does not do a good job of getting the small experiments running. And w/o that, it is difficult to get any handle over the big picture. If you haven't done XML and Oracle integration before, this book definitely is not what you are looking for.



4. I guess I am rushing to judgement - but in the first 10 pages I read, there were about 8 typos - so I am giving this a 2 stars for now. Will update my review/rating as I go along.

2 comments about PHP and MySQL: Create - Modify - Reuse.

1. Someone new to both PHP and MySQL might ask, why this combination? Why should I learn both in tandem? Because, as the authors explain, in many practical situations this duo is used by programmers; especially for web applications. This is really an implicit subtitle for the book. What you learn here is that PHP and MySQL live for the web.
   
   The chapters are characterised by application examples all devoted to the web. As in writing web pages for a community forum. The pages are coded in PHP, and the data created by users is then stored in a MySQL backend database. This overall method is followed in other examples. The PHP code samples seem easy to understand. The language has been found, or more accurately, it has been revved into its current version, such that much code is indeed easy to write and understand, and not just the text's examples.
   
   To be sure, the book is not about the theory of relational databases. Only the simplest of tables is used within MySQL. Yes, there is discussion about the tables used in each example. But it is really limited, to anyone who knows the subject. For a comprehensive usage of MySQL, you do need to look elsewhere.
   
   One chapter, on shopping cart code, complements a recent book on e-commerce, Wiley Pathways E-Business (Wiley Pathways). It spoke to non-programmers about the travails of starting an e-commerce website. A requirement was for a shopping cart. One way is to hire a programmer. Expensive. But if you are that programmer, consider looking at the extended example offered in the current text. It is extensive enough that it could be used as a code base for your task.



2. The samples are so clean clear that makes PHP easy to follow, if you are new to PHP this a must have after reading any beginners PHP book

No comments about Refactoring SQL Applications.

5 comments about OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide.

1. Jason Couchman must be laughing his head off on his own private island. Slap together a book full of mistakes (scripts that don't work, INCORRECT information, inane opinions,) and get it reviewed by his kindergarten kids. Get a buddy at Oracle to whack "Officially Authorized Oracle Press" on it.... then watch the dollars flow in.

   He didn't even both updating reference to ora81 directories.

   Shame on you Jason. I thought Nigerian e-mail scams were bad, but this book is just a cruel rip-off of people wanting to get somewhere in life.

   Shame on you Oracle for giving it your blessing.

   I may pass the exam but books such as this will not help me become a competent Oracle DBA.




2. This book is an update from the release 8i. Looks like the author did not take the time to properly update material, the functions chapter have missing lots of the new functions in 9i, same goes for MERGE and INSERT INTO (SELECT FROM ...) statements.
   I was surprised some of the new 9i stuff was not even mentioned in the book.

   Some of the examples are well explained, but there are some errors, you better test them and not take them as granted.

   You can use this book with Sybex Introduction to Oracle 9i, both will be enough to pass exam.




3. This is the only book I used to prepare for the OCP 1Z0-007 exam. The Oracle published exam objectives were covered and the sample test questions on CD were good. Other than one or two SQL syntax surprises, I had no problems with the exam. This book may not be adequate if you are unfamiliar with databases, SQL, and programming as there is not alot of instructional material here. Good luck.



4. I have been writing Oracle SQL for 5 years improving the efficiency of the web application our company maintains and decided to become officialy certified. I bought this book, learned some new terminology and Oracle skills. I aced the practice tests that came with the book. However, the official Oracle exam is much more difficult than the book's practice tests. I ended up buying some of Oracle's official practice tests. Of course, they may be scams as well.



5. Dont buy this book. This book is full of errors. couchman contradicts himself at various places, whatever he explains could be totaly diffrent to the explainaton he gives undet test review section. If you are buying this book make sure you have another book as a reference. i am really very much surprized how come oracle has given his tag to this book. i doubt if anyone can pass oracle exam using this book.

5 comments about Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus.

1. This book gets you started as a beginner and takes you all the way to becoming an intermediate SQL expert. Even those who think they know SQL can learn a lot from the book. Lex de Haan is a rare bird: he is both a very good teacher AND a consummate SQL savvy seasoned by industry practice. Lex knows what errors people make and he sets all the traps, to pick you out after you've fallen into them.
   And it's up to date with the latest Oracle stuff, without drowning in hype.
   The smart exercises and answers make this book ideal for teachers. I've had loads of university students work with the Dutch version, and I've been sorry for the lack of an English equivalent. But here it is at last!



2. The main reason I love this book is because I can use it to teach someone, at any level, Oracle SQL or SQL*Plus by just pointing to sections and pages as examples. There are comprehensive query examples with Oracle and ANSI/ISO (SQL:2003) syntax, including specific Oracle limitations.
   
   The details on SQL*Plus are excellent and even experts can learn quite a few essential tips. At many points reading the book I was provoked into testing further details on my own, because the approach is clear and helpful and it motivated me to think. A complete and accurate book including theory, syntax, examples, references and gotchas (caution and notes). It also includes 10g Oracle query features.
   
   Great book. My copy gets used at work a lot. :-)



3. The book presupposes no prior knowledge of Oracle SQL, or indeed of any SQL. de Haan writes for someone willing to study alone from this text, without benefit of the classroom.
   
   Ah, but before I go further, I should add that there is one very attractive feature. The book has a CD with Oracle 10g for Microsoft Windows, and an associated Developer's License. You will need to install it to handle the many exercises he poses. (Another plus of the book.) But one can easily imagine an experienced developer getting the book for the CD alone.
   
   Now if you do need to learn Oracle SQL, de Haan proceeds at a careful pace. He gives you the syntax in understandable chunks; not too much to overwhelm. SQL syntax diagrams can be formidable in their full glory. But piece by piece, you should be able to assimilate the content.
   
   de Haan has also tried to keep to standard SQL syntax, as much as possible. At the level of an expected reader of the book, this is probably best. Oracle specific variants (just like other vendors' variants) tend to arise in more advanced contexts.



4. Hi
   
   Having read 100's of reviews on SQL*Plus books I finally decided on this book. I felt that I had to give feedback as this book is not as good as the other reviews make it to be. I was looking for a book that specifically contained info on SQL*Plus syntax and a bit of SQL.
   I was full of expectations, but ended up being very disappointed. The books does cover SQL and it does cover SQL*Plus, but it never goes into any real depth on either topics. I love real world examples that I can actually refer back to and use on the job. Unfortunately this is not one of those books. If you are not an absolute beginner and can already do a fair bit of SQL/SQL*Plus then this book is not for you.



5. What a pleasure to pick up a computer book and finish it.
   I was completely new to SQL and was looking for a book that would get me started, this was it.
   What impressed me more was when I came upon an obstacle the response I received from the author was quick and informative.
   
   Many thanks Lex

No comments about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (PRO-Administrator's Pocket Consultant).

2 comments about Sams Teach Yourself MySQL in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. I have read only half this book (the first half which is dedicated to beginners database work) and found it easy to read and useful. When I become advanced enough I will read the second half. It includes topics like the SQL off-limits words that you shouldn't use in your database naming fields - which is always helpful (Especially when you are like "I know this function should be working!" and it isn't because you've used something in that list - you won't spend hours trying to debug your code!)
   
   I will buy Sams Teach yourself books for other topics again.



2. This book is based on MySQL 4.0 and some commands don't work on the new version. And this book also has lots of errors. For example, some code (products table)of the sampdb is missing in Appendix B. And it also misses some details so that you have to solve them by yourself.Interesting though.