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Whether you're running a business, keeping track of members and meetings for a club, or just trying to organize a large and diverse collection of information, you'll find the MySQL database engine useful for answering questions such as:

• Which are my top ten fastest-selling products?
• How frequently does this person come to our facility?
• What was the highest, lowest, and average score of the team last season?

MySQL, the most popular open-source database, offers the power of a relational database in a package that's easy to set up and administer, and Learning MySQL provides all the tools you need to get started. This densely packed tutorial includes detailed instructions to help you set up and design an effective database, create powerful queries using SQL, configure MySQL for improved security, and squeeze information out of your data.

After covering the basics, the book travels far into MySQL's subtleties, including complex queries and joins, how to interact with the database over the Web using PHP or Perl, and important house-keeping such as backups and security.

Topic include:

• Installation on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X
• Basic and advanced querying using SQL
• User management and security
• Backups and recovery
• Tuning for improved efficiency
• Developing command-line and web database applications using the PHP and Perl programming languages

The authors, Saied Tahaghoghi and Hugh E. Williams, have careers in academia and business, and share a keen interest in research into search technologies.

Whether you've never touched a database or have already completed some MySQL projects, you'll find insights in Learning MySQL that will last a career.