| Murach's MySQL, 4th Edition |
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Author: Joel Murach This is an updated edition of a longstanding popular title. The new edition adds a chapter on cloud computing and hosting MySQL on Amazon Web Services, and updates the information for MySQL 8.0.33, removing deprecated data types and functions and adding new statement options and clauses. Like other Murach titles, this book uses a paired-page layout where new ideas are described on the left-hand page, and the right-hand page is used for examples of the concepts being introduced. The book starts by introducing MySQL, with chapters on relational databases, the MySQL Workbench, and retrieving data from a single table and multiple tables, as well as insert, update and deleting data, all done using SQL.
Section 2 moves on to summary queries, subqueries, data types and functions. The chapter on summary queries goes as far as aggregate functions, group by, having, where, with rollup and grouping operators. It also looks at coding aggregate window functions and the use of frames. The chapter on subqueries started with adding subqueries to the Where clause, the use of In, All, and putting subqueries in Having, Select and From. It also looked at working with complex queries and using Common Table Expressions.
Section 3's topic is database design and implementation - enough for a big book in its own right. The topics covered are explained well given the constraints of space as part of a larger book, but I think you'd need another title as well if you were trying to learn about the wider aspects of database design. The book does show the commands you can use and gives examples of their use. The section goes on to show creating databases, tables, indexes and views.
Stored program development is the subject of the next section. Joel Murach starts with a chapter on the language skills you need and how to write procedural code. There's a good chapter on transactions and locking, with a subsection on working with concurrency and locking. Chapters on stored procedures and functions, and working with triggers and events complete this section.
The final part of the book is on database administration. There are useful chapters on securing a database and backing up and restoring a database. These are followed by a new chapter on hosting a MySQL database on Amazon Web Services. This chapter starts with a secion on how to create and configure a MySQL RDS (relational database services) instance, with an explanation of the AWS management console and the Amazon RDS Databases page. Murach explains how to use MySQL Workbench with an RDS instance, how to connect to an RDS instance and how to run scripts and SQL statements against an RDS database. The chapter continues how you can backup and restore a database instance, work with snapshots, and improtantly how to check the AWS Billing Dashboard.
Two appendixes end the book looking at how to install MySQL for Windows and MacOS. This was already a thorough book and the new chapter adds more useful information. Overall, this is a good, solid book.
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