From: David T. Ashley (dashleygmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 13 2007 - 13:18:21 CDT

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On 8/13/07, Jonathan Horne <mysqldfwlp.com> wrote:
>
> i finally have a real need that i need to sit down and learn the basics of
> databases. i need to learn to create a database that i can use to track
> assets at my company, and have it be readable/updatable from a web
> interface
> (and hopefully also export data to .csv).
>
> can someone recommend a book that i might learn this from? ill be
> starting
> from total db-novice.

One more thing.

In general, the practical issues (getting simple projects to work) are
covered in a book like "Beginning Databases with MySQL", but for the
theoretical issues, it might be best for you to take a course or two at a
local university.

For example, understanding the performance impact of indexes requires
understanding a little about O(N), O(log N), etc.

Here are some things that are relevant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_notation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Btree

In general, you strive to make every database operation perform no worse
than O(log N) as the database grows. Understanding how to do this requires
a bit of theory. I don't think you'd find that in a book like "Beginning
Databases with MySQL".

Dave.

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