SQL

[Souleh]

SQL Language isnt hard, if you want I might have my first year uni notes kicking about which shouldnt be a bad introduction to it all?

 

[robmiller]

It's like anything really. The SQL equivalent of "hello world"—just basic CRUD stuff—is pretty easy, but it can get quite complex quite quickly. Fortunately, you can get pretty far just doing basic CRUD stuff, especially with something visual like phpMyAdmin.

 

[Mattus]

Basic SQL is easy-peasy - probably one of the simplest "languages" to pick up because basic queries sound fairly similar to natural language. I would recommend the W3 tutorials.

Once you get into complex queries on complex databases, of course, it becomes much more difficult to follow.

 

[Dolph]

Nah I'm sorry but relatively IMHO it's the easiest "language" to pick up.

Oh definitely, SQL as a language is easy, that wasn't what I was saying. The language being easy to pick up and program does rely on the database you are manipulating being well structured to start with, otherwise it can suddenly get very complex to do simple things.

Few languages are so dependent on underlying structures as SQL.

 

[MarcLister]

Yep, they both work perfectly well together. Infact we use Visual Studio 2008/C# and the express edition on our server at work. We don't need the features of the more expensive packages right now but it's still perfectly happy with hundreds of thousands of rows and 100 or so tables of data performing very complex calculations .

Visual Studio makes it very simple to use SQL server too. Have a look into using datasets with SQL.

Also, here's some nice videos from Microsoft.

Sorry to kind of hijack this thread but I downloaded the Microsoft Web Platform installer and chose the "Runtime with Advanced Services" copy of SQL Server Express 2008 as seen here. I chose that version for the full text search capability, which I thought could be useful.

However when I run the most obvious shortcut in the SQL Server Express 2008 folder on my Programs list off the Start menu the interface I get doesn't match what I see in the tutorial videos. It seems to be more complicated to create and connect to a new database with what I've got than on the videos. Could anyone give me a hand working out what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Pho]

Try using SQL Server Management Studio - that gives the nice management interface which I assume Microsoft use in their videos.

Should be here:
%programfiles(x86)%\Microsoft SQL Server\100\tools\binn\vsshell\common7\ide\ssms.exe

 

[MarcLister]

Thanks Pho. Should I use the "Install It Now!" link at the top of the SQL Server Express page or use the Runtime with Advanced Services link?

 

[Pho]

The Runtime with Advanced Services should be fine, but it's been a while since I installed it .

 

[MarcLister]

Cheers. Turns out I was running the right program after all. Will need to spend some time working out how everything works.

 

[MikeHunt79]

you may want to look into learning PHP also, it's like glue betweem SQL and HTML

 

[Randomface74]

SELECT Top 1 [Book] FROM [Nile] WHERE [Name] LIKE '%Learning SQL%' ORDER BY [Price] ASC

 

[MarcLister]

you may want to look into learning PHP also, it's like glue betweem SQL and HTML

Moi? If so, then yeah I am thinking of doing so. I would like to do a PHP/SQL database for the school I work at and develop a fault logging database to allow the staff to log errors or problems with the ICT equipment. I thought that actually having a project to learn PHP/SQL would be better than just learning PHP/SQL for the sake of it.

SELECT Top 1 [Book] FROM [Ahem!] WHERE [Name] LIKE '%Learning SQL%' ORDER BY [Price] ASC

Nah, go on. Give us a clue!

 

[Ciphon]

The basic's of SQL are pretty easy to learn, but it does get a lot harder.

 

[aln]

Oh definitely, SQL as a language is easy, that wasn't what I was saying. The language being easy to pick up and program does rely on the database you are manipulating being well structured to start with, otherwise it can suddenly get very complex to do simple things.

Few languages are so dependent on underlying structures as SQL.

This guy does have a point. SQL, which is normally trivial, can become quite frustrating when facing poor database design decisions. Furthmore, it is more than powerful enough to make significant 'whoopies', which means you should treat it with a deal of respect, regardless of how easy it is.

W3Schools is a good website. http://www.w3schools.com/SQl/default.asp

They will also show you the basics of using these in PHP at http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/php_mysql_intro.asp. The best way to learn is to give it a try yourself. When you have a resonable idea of what you are doing, learning a little bit more about relational databases will make coding a lot easier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database#Relations_or_Tables. It normally takes time to learn this, and bring it all together though.