Ian Gilfillan

What are Stored Procedures MySQL 5.0 finally introduces functionality for Stored Procedures. So what exactly are stored procedures? That is the kind of question that gets database professionals who use other DBMS’s raising their eyebrows. Stored procedures have been integral to Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB-2, MS-SQL server and others for years, and it has long been […]

Introduction For a number of years Ian Barwick has maintained an excellent page called MySQL Gotchas. These are MySQL features, which do not work as expected according to either the SQL standard, or the way other common relational databases would do things. I have been sent the link to this page countless times, usually by […]

New Storage Engines in MySQL 5 MySQL 5 offers a number of new storage engines (previously called table types). In addition to the default MyISAM storage engine, and the InnoDB, BDB, HEAP and MERGE storage engines, there are four new types: CSV, ARCHIVE, FEDERATED and EXAMPLE, as well as a new name for the HEAP […]

MySQL Professional Certification Last month we looked at the MySQL Core certification, aimed at MySQL users and developers. For people wanting to go even further, there is another MySQL certification – the MySQL Professional certification, aimed at database administrators. The Core certification is a prerequisite for the Professional certification. The Pro test is more difficult, […]

The value of certification I recently arranged for the developers at our company to get MySQL certified. From the employer’s point of view, it was not the piece of paper I was after. Rather, the improved productivity that properly-trained MySQL users could provide. The benefits have been noticeable. The number of badly written queries has […]

Introduction This month I take a brief look at Open Source Database Management Systems. I do not aim to find the ‘best’ one, or perform an in-depth feature-by-feature analysis, but rather a introduce you to the variety of solutions out there. I am presuming readers of my columns by now already have an understanding of […]

Introduction This month’s topic is one that often baffles inexperienced SQL coders. We will look at the GROUP BY clause, and then the difference between conditions placed in the WHERE clause, and the HAVING clause. I have used MySQL to test all of the examples, but most of them should work without any problems on […]

Overview Last month we looked at MySQL Administrator, this month I try out another of the MySQL tools: MySQL Query Browser. One nice thing about writing a regular monthly column (or a book!) is that it is an incentive to try out new tools I may not use in the work environment. I can avoid […]

Overview On the 1st December, 2004, MySQL AB released a new version of MySQL Administrator (version 1.0.17). I had not previously used this tool, but with some time on my hands and the work crisis averted thanks to the installation of our new database server, I thought I would see how it shapes up. Since […]

MYSQL 4.1 has been released as a production version, and with all the new features it is likely a new generation of developers will soon be using MySQL. This month I revisit an old area of contention – subqueries. Until now, MySQL has not supported subqueries, and this lack caused many to write off MySQL […]

One of the most frequently requested topics for this column is, not surprisingly, backups. Not surprising because disks still fail, and developers still forget WHERE clauses and nuke entire tables. I am not ashamed to admit that I did just that a few days ago. Everyone destroys something every now and again, a timely reminder […]

BDB Transactions The previous two columns in this series have covered general transactions with InnoDB tables and transaction isolation levels. This month, we look at transactions with other table types, specifically BDB tables, and all other table types, including the default MyISAM table type. BDB Tables are not that commonly used. Most tables tend to […]