Getting started with SQL

rubberduck

rubberduck

rubberduck

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8 Feb 2004
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Hi

Looking to learn the basics of SQL, are their any free options for setting up a very rudimentary data base and playing around with tables. Preferably some tutorials I can follow to understand the basic - not looking to go complex.

Thanks
 
You can download SQL Server developer edition from here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/sql-server/sql-server-downloads

You'll use SQL Server Management Studio as your graphical user interface, you can get it here:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sq...-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-ver15

If you want to write some C# to use your database, here's a tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et2khGnrIqc

You'll need Visual Studio installed for that, you can get the Community edition from here:
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/
 
rubberduck said:
Hi

Looking to learn the basics of SQL, are their any free options for setting up a very rudimentary data base and playing around with tables. Preferably some tutorials I can follow to understand the basic - not looking to go complex.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Something like this maybe? Should be easy enough to follow along with the video.
Any normal computer can run SQL, it's light weight and most database engines are freeware.


As a side note, it will take much longer than 4 hours to follow along, so recommend maybe 1 hour of following along for each 30 minutes of video.
 
If you want to start creating SQL databases the platform and implementation don't matter very much, what you need to know is how to structure the tables.

Do some reading on database normalis(z)nation and make sure you understand how to get to at least 3NF.
 
Don't worry about servers, home labs or raspberry pis. Just install SQL server on your own machine, download the Adventureworks database and follow some of the many Microsoft documentation pages and other tutorials online.

Generally though, if you are having to ask on a forum how to do something like this you will probably struggle. You could have figured all of this out by Googling it yourself. That's a huge part of learning.
 
Then you get loads of services starting, local files to mess with. Fine if you have to, but you will learn more and appreciate a separate place to host the back ends, containers etc. if you use a repurposed machine or a pi like we said. :)

I know people cringe but we are not talking corporate grade here to start out. I learned my basics on Access then started to split the FE and BE, linking databases - the language is similar and you can get comfortable with it easily. You can then set up mySQL or postgresql and take it to the next level. There are so many ways you can implement a 'database' to the needs it would be more helpful to target what you need it for, unless its simply to mess with.
 
Th0nt said:
Then you get loads of services starting, local files to mess with. Fine if you have to, but you will learn more and appreciate a separate place to host the back ends, containers etc. if you use a repurposed machine or a pi like we said. :)

I know people cringe but we are not talking corporate grade here to start out. I learned my basics on Access then started to split the FE and BE, linking databases - the language is similar and you can get comfortable with it easily. You can then set up mySQL or postgresql and take it to the next level. There are so many ways you can implement a 'database' to the needs it would be more helpful to target what you need it for, unless its simply to mess with.
Click to expand...

If he/she is literally just trying it out then there's not much point going to all that effort. Just install it, play around and if you like it, build a server or whatever. If you must have it seperated, run it in a VM

As I said though, this person should have figured those basic steps out for themselves. Doesn't bode well for future learning if they're already stuck.
 
I used to install SQL Server (the free edition) on my personal PC. Decent enough GUI - you can build and edit tables through the GUI if I remember correctly, and you can write scripts, stored procedures, triggers and all of that. As others have said, the downside is that it runs as a service on your machine and as my machine got longer in the tooth it definitely slowed down startup times etc.

I've just installed SQLite and a GUI for it (DB Browser for SQLite) on my machine - it doesn't give all the functionality (e.g. stored procedures) of the proper SQL platforms, but it's great for playing around and learning. Runs as a file so no need to install a server and should be easy enough to delete when you're done. To be honest, if you just want to try something and knock a few things together I would pretty much recommend it to play with and see if you like it and get the hang of it.

I've never tried mySQL or PostgreSQL, but as they're both open source (I think) I expect you'd be able to download and install either on your machine and they'll work somewhat like SQL Server - running as a service and with the full suite of SQL capabilities. I've not done it and I've not researched for this post, but they're both pretty big names in SQL so they're worth mentioning but I'm afraid you'll need to DYOR on them.

Good luck.
 
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