I second Claudio's recommendation on Paul DuBois "MySQL" 4th edition. I've followed his book and enjoyed it.
Depending on your background, especially if you work predominately in Windows, I think you will need to have easy access to a *nix machine, either a physical one or virtual machines, preferably a physical one. Learning is all about satisfying your curiosities and repetition, therefore you will need a machine as a sandbox to mess around. Speaking of sandbox, I found Giuseppe's MySQL sandbox is a great learning tool. Download it, get a tar ball binary, follow the instructions and you will have as many instances as you like, even replication. Another book that I like is Baron Schwartz's High Performance MySQL. Don't let the title fool you into thinking that this is an advanced book just for experienced practioners. It certainly is a great book for experienced people, but it is written in a way that is very much approachable to beginners as well. Good luck. My personal experience has been that it was a bit frustrating to get started, especially if you are used to other RDBMS platforms: the way login and permissions are setup, each tables can have different storage engines, different logging mechanism, MyISAM's table and index files, and InnoDb's tablespace files, backup, etc. But once you get over that, it can be pretty fun to tinker around. Haidong "Alex" Ji http://www.HaidongJi.com/technology On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 5:53 PM, <claudio.na...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > I think in your case you should go for a traditional book approach to build > a good background. > In my opinion finding the right book is a matter of match between the kind > of book and your background. > My hint is to gather here 4/5 good book titles, go in a book shop take a > while to run thru the books and 'feel' whats the best approach for you. > > In your case, if you want to study quite well, the most complete book I can > think of is Paul DuBois 'MySQL' 4th Edition. > > While the certification study guide I find it not suitable for the needs of > a beginner for structure, for contents and for difficulty. > > Cheers > > Claudio > > > > On Mar 25, 2009 7:44pm, Olaf Stein <olaf.st...@nationwidechildrens.org> > wrote: > >> If you know in theory what you want to do then I recommend the >> certification >> > > study guide >> > > > > http://www.mysql.com/certification/studyguides/ >> > > > > olaf >> > > > > > > On 3/24/09 9:00 PM, "solarflow99" solarflo...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > > > > > hi, I'm looking for some advice where to learn mysql. Not being a DBA, I >> > > > have basic knowledge of databases, and have administered them in the >> past. >> > > > The docs on the mysql site aren't very good for this, just a few >> examples of >> > > > commands, etc. Ideally, something that is suited for system >> administrators, >> > > > not looking to be a DBA. >> > > > >> > > > Thanks.. >> > > > > ----------------------------------------- Confidentiality Notice: >> > > The following mail message, including any attachments, is for the >> > > sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential >> > > and privileged information. The recipient is responsible to >> > > maintain the confidentiality of this information and to use the >> > > information only for authorized purposes. If you are not the >> > > intended recipient (or authorized to receive information for the >> > > intended recipient), you are hereby notified that any review, use, >> > > disclosure, distribution, copying, printing, or action taken in >> > > reliance on the contents of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If >> > > you have received this communication in error, please notify us >> > > immediately by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original >> > > message. Thank you. >> > > > > -- >> > > MySQL General Mailing List >> > > For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql >> > > To unsubscribe: >> http://lists.mysql.com/mysql?unsub=claudio.na...@gmail.com >> > > > >
