MySQL is the leading open-source database platform, and its popularity has grown with the widespread adoption of PHP for interactive web applications. With version 4, MySQL has added many new features and shown itself to be ready for widespread use.

Ideal for both administrators and developers and suited to SQL beginners and veterans alike, Mastering MySQL 4 delivers a comprehensive guide to this new version as well as to database design and normalization — functions often ignored in database development. You'll learn how to configure and optimize MySQL for high-volume usage and get the most out of its transactional and nontransactional table types. You'll also discover how to perform such standard database tasks as backup, maintenance, and replication plus manage security issues and program with MySQL (references are included for most popular programming languages, including PHP, Perl, Java, Python and C/C++).