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Creating your MySQL Database: Practical Design Tips and Techniques: A short guide for everyone on how to structure your data and set-up your MySQL database tables efficiently and easily.
If you're creating a dynamic web application using open-source tools, then you're probably going to be setting up a MySQL database. Getting the design of this database right for your application and its data is vital, but it's often an intimidating and little-known process for non-developers and developers alike. Written by the creator of the popular phpMyAdmin tool, this book is a short but complete guide on how to design good data structures for MySQL. Anyone working with applications that use a MySQL database backend will benefit greatly from the advice and techniques in this book. Although a working knowledge of both SQL and MySQL is assumed, the book is suitable for both beginners and intermediate users alike. Whether you read it through and absorb the advice or work through it on a live project, the efficiency and maintainability of your databases will certainly improve as a result.
94 pages, Paperback
First published November 25, 2006
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July 29, 2012
My low rating for the book is based on the fact I didn't learn much from this book. Creating Your MySQL Database is a decent book that only took a couple hours to read; but unfortunately it was not a terribly useful book though, at least from my perspective as someone with a bit of a background in computer science.
On the plus side, the book is concise, well-organized, and (as far as I can tell) provides correct, useful, and practical information. There's no real fault to the book in this regard.
The main downside I see though, is that the book simultaneously assumes the reader (a) knows the basics of MySQL, yet (b) doesn't know the very basics of database design. I had a bit of trouble imagining that someone who has the basics of MySQL wouldn't already have absorbed some of the "tips and techniques" presented by the book. Perhaps I'm simply not the target audience? Generalizing this complaint a bit, the book did not feel very complete: it gave a couple reasonable examples and explained them well, but it didn't feel like the whole picture (being a beginner book) nor entirely a great introductory text (given the assumption of knowing the basics of MySQL already). I suppose this may be a necessary side-effect of a book on database design that only spans 80 or so pages.
It is a book that lives up to its title of being about the design of a database. Its advice is practical and well-founded. However, as someone with a bit of a background in computer science (if not that much in MySQL), there was plenty I agreed with, but little I found new or noteworthy to learn from in the book.
On the plus side, the book is concise, well-organized, and (as far as I can tell) provides correct, useful, and practical information. There's no real fault to the book in this regard.
The main downside I see though, is that the book simultaneously assumes the reader (a) knows the basics of MySQL, yet (b) doesn't know the very basics of database design. I had a bit of trouble imagining that someone who has the basics of MySQL wouldn't already have absorbed some of the "tips and techniques" presented by the book. Perhaps I'm simply not the target audience? Generalizing this complaint a bit, the book did not feel very complete: it gave a couple reasonable examples and explained them well, but it didn't feel like the whole picture (being a beginner book) nor entirely a great introductory text (given the assumption of knowing the basics of MySQL already). I suppose this may be a necessary side-effect of a book on database design that only spans 80 or so pages.
It is a book that lives up to its title of being about the design of a database. Its advice is practical and well-founded. However, as someone with a bit of a background in computer science (if not that much in MySQL), there was plenty I agreed with, but little I found new or noteworthy to learn from in the book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review