(Alan Beaulieus) Learn how queries are executed by the MySQL server, and then take a closer look at the select statement and how its parts interact. (pdf)

(Vincent Danen) MySQL is perhaps one of the most popular database systems currently available. It has a lot of great features, it’s open source, and a lot of Web-based applications use it for their back-end storage.

(Ian Gilfillan) There are still people using MySQL 4.0 (and I even came across a MySQL 3.23 installation recently), but MySQL 5.1 is now the latest of the MySQL releases–with 5.1.7, the latest as I write; it has just moved from alpha to beta status. Recently I have been writing about what the futur

(Mellonfire) One of PostgreSQL’s more useful capabilities is the ability to create custom “views”. These views are nothing more than pre-defined SQL queries, which are stored in the database and can be re-used as and when needed. Storing frequently-used SQL queries in this manner is more efficient t

(Josh Berkus) Sorry for the delay. I’ve been busy organizing the PostgreSQL Anniversary Summit, and didn’t get back to this as soon as I’d have liked to. If you’re just picking up now, please read part 1 first.

(Josh Berkus and Joe Conway) Earlier today a user came onto the #postgresql channel on IRC.freenode.net with an interesting challenge: he wanted a “random” aggregate. Jan Wieck stated that it couldn’t be done, but I thought there might be a way. Oddly, the user wasn’t satisfied with my solution (I

(Josh Berkus) The real point I’m making today is that there are at least four kinds of replication, and at least four kinds of clustering. Not terribly profound, but you wouldn’t believe the number of journalists and punchasing managers to whom I’ve had to explain it.. People who are not well-acquai

(Ziran Sun) When it was written, part two was designed to be the end of the article. However, since then I’ve received a number of email messages requesting additional information. Therefore this part will attempt to address the questions raised in those messages and share what I’ve found while rese

EVERY time internet users search on Google, shop at Amazon or trade on eBay, they rely on open-source software—products that are often built by volunteers and cost nothing to use. More than two-thirds of websites are hosted using Apache, an open-source product that trounces commercial rivals. Wikipe

(Andy Oppel) This final chapter covers performance and tuning considerations for making the SQL statements you write run faster and more efficiently. First, we’ll have a look at general things that can be done at the DBMS level, followed by guidelines for writing efficient SQL. The