Along with MySQL's popularity has come a flood of questions about solving specific problems, and that's where this Cookbook is essential. Designed as a handy resource when you need quick solutions or techniques, the book offers dozens of short, focused pieces of code and hundreds of worked-out examples for programmers of all levels who don't have the time (or expertise) to solve MySQL problems from scratch. The new edition covers MySQL 5.0 and its powerful new features, as well as the older but still widespread MySQL 4.1. One major emphasis of this book is how to use SQL to formulate queries for particular kinds of questions, using the mysql client program included in MySQL distributions. The other major emphasis is how to write programs that interact with the MySQL server through an API. You'll find plenty of examples using several language APIs in multiple scenarios and situations, including the use of Ruby to retrieve and format data. There are also many new examples for using Perl, PHP, Python, and Java as well. Other recipes in the book teach you to: * Access data from multiple tables at the same time * Use SQL to select, sort, and summarize rows * Find matches or mismatches between rows in two tables * Determine intervals between dates or times, including age calculations * Store images into MySQL and retrieve them for display in web pages * Get LOAD DATA to read your data files properly or find which values in the file are invalid * Use strict mode to prevent entry of bad data into your database * Copy a table or a database to another server * Generate sequence numbers to use as unique row identifiers * Create database events that execute according to a schedule * And a lot more MySQL Cookbook doesn't attempt to develop full-fledged, complex applications. Instead, it's intended to assist you in developing applications yourself by helping you get past problems that have you stumped.

This collection of 281 recipes shows how to write a query, apply a technique, or develop a script to solve a problem of limited scope using the Perl, PHP, Python, and Java APIs in the MySQL 5.0 database management system. Topics include the MySQL command line client, record selection techniques, working with dates and times, modifying the structure of tables, transferring data between MySQL and other programs, generating sequences, statistical techniques, and processing web input. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"MySQL Cookbook" provides a unique problem-and-solution format that offers practical examples for everyday programming dilemmas. For every problem addressed in the book, there's a worked-out solution or "recipe"--short, focused pieces of code that you can insert directly into your applications. More than a collection of cut-and-paste code, this book explanation how and why the code works, so you can learn to adapt the techniques to similar situations.

DuBois provides a unique problem-and-solution format that offers practical examples for everyday programming dilemmas. For every problem addressed in the book, there's a worked-out solution or "recipe"--short, focused pieces of code that readers can insert directly into their applications.