Is there a really good MySQL reference? I want to know how to do certain things like adding tables and rows and even databases or even optimizing a current table.

What is the best reference for MySQL that covers practically everything it can do?

Also, 1 question I did have is how would I go about formatting the dates held in MySQL to a way I like it? Can you store it in the database as mm-dd-yyyy or do you have to convert it to such when displaying it and convert it back to yyyy-mm-dd when inserting it into the database?