Learning SQL...where to start?

Phate · 25 Jun 2015 at 08:04

Hi guys,

For some upcoming projects of my own I'm going to need them running a SQL backend. Whilst I've worked in SQL before I'm far from 'comfortable' with it...so now is as good a time as any to begin to learning it properly.

Can anyone recommend where to begin? a dummies book possibly? I can soon setup some VM's on my machine to do the work in.

TIA

Jake

!bluetonic! · 25 Jun 2015 at 14:57

Are you comfortable with any SQL whatsoever?

If not, start with the basics on (dare I say it..)

http://www.w3schools.com/sql/

If you know the above, what is you need to do?

mattoxx · 27 Jun 2015 at 10:43

I can only recommend http://www.w3schools.com/sql/
It is very good for basic overview, and then you can pick up some book, that deeply cover all aspects of SQL.

davetherave2 · 30 Jun 2015 at 23:23

Personally I started with the dummies guide to sql. It gave me that initial syntactic sugar that I needed to understand the concepts of the language and then looking at examples of other people's work then helped me to understand how to do things. Are you familiar with Linq at all? This has a similar feel for non-sql users.

If you are used to working with OOP then just model an existing project of classes from a language you are strong in into SQL tables. May even be worth looking at https://www.livecoding.tv as there maybe someone doing a demo. It is a new service a fellow developer at work sent me an email about it and it looks interesting (think of it as twitch.tv for coders)

Alternatively if you get stuck give me a shout I will be more than happy to help if I can. I don't confess to be the worlds greatest sql developer but I know enough to deal with large databases (500GB+) from both a design, maintenance and performance and getting them working super fast. I use MS SQL 2005+ (mainly working on SQL 2012/SQL Azure) hoping to move up to 2014/2016 if I can convince work to get some licenses for it.

Throrik · 1 Jul 2015 at 01:04

Code school have a decent introduction to SQL:

https://www.codeschool.com/courses/try-sql

They've also just released a none-free sequel to said introduction to SQL:

https://www.codeschool.com/courses/the-sequel-to-sql

You can also take the course on MVA which focuses more on T-SQL which is the Microsoft specific SQL but they're mostly interchangeable.

https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy...oft-sql-server-2012-databases-jump-start-8241

Pho · 2 Jul 2015 at 10:18

Jake, been a long time since we've chatted but feel free to hit me up if you get stuck

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Are you looking to go down the MySQL or MSSQL route? MSSQL is better

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JimAroo · 3 Jul 2015 at 22:38

Pho said:
Are you looking to go down the MySQL or MSSQL route? MSSQL is better .

Pfffffft MSSQL, PostgreSQL is better

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Gornall · 6 Jul 2015 at 10:29

sqlzoo is pretty good, I'd usually recommend that ahead of w3schools. They have a terrible reputation.

Pho · 6 Jul 2015 at 11:08

JimAroo said:
Pfffffft MSSQL, PostgreSQL is better .

Most of this is due to the awesomeness that is Management Studio and the awfulness that are most other database engines' tools

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mid_gen · 10 Jul 2015 at 10:18

PL-SQL all the way

Tbh the basic SQL syntax is pretty easy to pick up. The real skill is learning the various optimisation techniques for each specific database engine.

Onayme · 10 Jul 2015 at 11:26

This site has a couple of good examples: http://learning-sql.com/. You can check out tutorialspoint and w3schools also.