Data Types

• MySQL has several text types (example: "Varchar"), several number types (example: "Int") and several date types (example: "Time), and choosing the smallest possible type can save memory.
  
  

Indexes

• Indexes on columns are set by adding "Primary Key," "Key," "Unique" or "Index to Create or Alter" statements, and improve the data recovery speeds of the database at the expense of memory.
  
  

Searching Multiple Tables

• The keyword "Join" can be used with "Select," "Delete" and "Update" statements to return results from multiple tables by joining data from matching columns.
  
  

Combining Results

• Combing the results from multiple "Select" statements into one table can be accomplished with "Union" when returned data has matching columns where table1's first column name equals table2's first column name and so on.
  
  

Aggregate Functions

• In MySQL, aggregate functions perform calculations on and combine data from columns into a single record and can be used with "Group By" to affect unique values from a column or columns.
  
  

Control Flow Functions

• Functions such as "Case," "If," "Ifnull" and "Nullif" allow the user to place conditions on SQL statements, and return values based on whether the particular condition is true or false.