I have a new job that requires me to know Microsoft SQL Server. I haven't dealt with SQL since college and even then my professor was really bad and i didn't even have any actual software SQL experience... we just wrote everything on pencil and paper
So I'm trying to learn as much as I can on the internet but nothing is coming up "specifically" for Microsoft SQL.
If i go over the SQL tutorials on say W3schools, does the majority of the syntax still apply to Microsoft's version? I'm kinda naive to this topic and I need to pick this up quick. Any specific advice on how I can go about learning this would be very helpful and would be much appreciated
Thank you
You will not be learning the wrong syntax on W3Schools, they both are quite similar but T-SQL may seen to be more "powerful" in some cases.
Apart from that, you may also want to look at MSDN Link for the tutorial from Microsoft;
look at TSql link for another T-SQL tutorial site;
look at here on pluralsight for video tutorials (not free),
or on this link this book would be a good starter guide for you.
Sorry to ask this kind of questions.
But I am eager to know some good sites where I can have the opportunity to have some sql competitions.
I found 1
TroyK's T-SQL Challenge
but it is not free.
I am looking for a free one.
And also C# programming competitions. One I found is Code Chef
I am Looking for some more.
Also, it should be for any ages!
Edited:
I liked Project Euler. It's nice
Also some TSQL programming challenge. Sql Server Central is good. But I am looking for more TSql programs
Thanks in advance
For C#, Project Euler is a good one. It is not C# specific as answers can be submitted in any language. The challenges tend to be quite challenging as they are not just about solving the problem, but solving it quickly.
For SQL, SQL Server Central publishes some PDF books called SQL Server Stumpers, as well as having SQL challenges every now and again.
http://www.topcoder.com/ has regular programming competitions for multiple languages, c# included.
Well, you can do TroyK's challenge without registering for EE. Just see whether the desired result equals your result.
This way you cannot compete with others, though.
Unfortunately I haven't seen any SQL competitions but these are some of the resources we used in the FIU Programming Team:
http://uva.onlinejudge.org/index.php?option=com_onlinejudge&Itemid=8 was the official website my university programming team used to hone our skills. They accept answers in various languages, but the focus is more on your algorithms than your syntax.
For some softer stuff many FIU students used http://codingbat.com/ which also accepts a few different languages. Many of the problems on this site were simple and straightforward, the challenge came in trying to code them as fast as possible.
I am very interested in applications of geospatials.
Is there is a good tutorial?
I am a beginner at SQL, can I work with geospatials through the .NET environment?
What should I download to use spatials?
The Oracle documentation set is very good, and it includes a Spatial Developer's Guide.
I have to say though that Spatial is pretty tough going, and if I were new to SQL it's not where I would choose to start.
Would some one suggest me the best method to start learning the fundas of programming.
I would be involved in SQL and SAS related technologies involving databases.
Please advice
SQL is an easier one to tackle. You can download a small database (mysql or oracle express) and begin working. Test and play and read until you get the hang of it. There are many articles available to give guidance. Just Google.
SAS on the other hand is a bit more difficult. You can't get your hands on the software unless your employer has a copy or you purchase a user copy from your university or from SAS. I would suggest taking a class from SAS. They offer SAS Essentials 1 for beginners. Great class, not cheap.
My best advice on learning to program: Pick a project and start working on it. Things will make a lot more sense when you try to use them. You don't have to finish even. Don't worry about the end result. You'll learn through the process.
The best advice I can give you is to get books on the subject and maybe try find somebody in your area you can learn from or work with to gain some knowledge. Otherwise find articles and blogs relating to SQL and SAS.
Good luck!
both sql and sas are not good for learning programming fundamentals, because they are not typical programming languages. Learn C# or Java for system development, or Python or Ruby for scripting. Most undergraduate programming courses will also include some kind of functional programming languages.
once you have some fundamentals under your belt, sql itself can be learned in a very short time. in the class I took on database systems, the professor gave only two one-hour lectures on sql.
sas has a steep learning curve, because it is a system, not a language. In terms of languages, in fact, some might say that it has 30 or more different "languages" in it.
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I've never had much need for programming with databases. Since their use is so widespread it seems like a good thing for me to learn. SQL seems like the place to start, possibly SQLite and maybe the Python bindings. What would you recommend for someone new to this? Libraries, tools and project ideas are all welcome.
Structure Query Language (SQL) is the language used to talk to database management systems (DBMS). While it's a good thing to learn, it's probably best to do it with a project in mind that you'd like to do. It's funny you say you've never had a need, because I'm the opposite, almost every program I've ever written has used a database of some sort. The vast majority (mostly web-based) revolve around using a database.
Learn about relations and database architecture. This means how to structure your tables, make foreign keys and relations.
For example, you might have a movies database. In it, you store information about the Movies, Studios that released the movies, and the Actors in the movies. Each of these becomes a table. Each Movie is released by one Studio. Since you don't want to store duplicate the studio information (address, etc) in each Movie entry, you store a relation to it, so each Movie item contains a reference to a Studio item. This is called a one-to-many relationship (one studio has many movies). Likewise, you don't want to store Actor information for each Movie. But one Actor can be in many Movies, so this is stored as a many-to-many relationship.
Learn SQL itself. SQLCourse is a good place to get started, but there are many other books and resources. SQL is a standard, but each RDBMS has its own vendor-specific ways of doing certain things and other limitations (for example, some systems don't support sub-queries, there are several different syntaxes for limiting the number of rows returned, etc). It's important to learn the syntax for the one you're using (eg, don't learn Oracle syntax and then try and use it in MySQL) but they are similar enough that the concepts are the same.
Tools depend on the DBMS you use. MySQL is a pretty popular database, lots of tools are available, and lots of books. SQLite and Postgresql are also quite popular, and also free/open-source.
If you can, you really want to find someone who knows how to use it, and pick their brains. That's because there are a lot of important principles (eg 3rd normal form) which will are a lot easier to learn through discussion rather than from books.
If you want to teach yourself, you should learn the syntax for doing basic selects, joins, updates, deletes, and group by queries. You should also learn the "Swiss army knife" of selects, the CASE statement. Too many people don't. Many of the tutorials recommended in this thread will do that. Then you need to try to solve SQL problems. I'm sure that Joe Celko's SQL Puzzles and Answers is a good source of them, though it may be a little advanced.
This will let you actually write SQL. But you still need to learn how to organize a database. Which for most purposes means that you really need to learn what 3rd normal form looks like. You don't have to be able to give a formal definition of it, just recognize it when you see it, and know how to adjust something to be in that format.
Lots of references will explain it, but you won't know if you're reading them correctly. This is where it really, really helps to have access to someone who can look at a table layout and tell you, "That's right" vs "That's wrong, here's what needs to be changed." Failing all else, you could post a question here with a proposed layout. But a back and forth discussion with a live person would still be preferable IMO.
Try Wikipedia, http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp and http://www.sql-tutorial.net/ Also check YouTube for SQL Videos.
You are correct, SQLite is a great place to start because it is free, lightweight, and available on many platforms. This is only a start though. SQLite is very liberal on SQL syntax and lacks an intneral programming language like DBMS systems have. Still, if you want to start and learn with minimal overhead, SQLite is the way to go.
SQLite is nice and they have really nice documentation, however you should be aware that it is not a full featured SQL database like MySQL, Postgres or the commercial variants. SQLite's API relies on callbacks which is a fine model, but not all database APIs work that way. If you are familiar with Perl, then DBI is another nice way to explore SQL.
/Allan
"A Gentle Introduction to SQL" - You can even practice "live queries" right on this tutorial website.
http://sqlzoo.net/
I always recommend The Practical SQL Handbook for a good starting point for beginners - especially those who have seen SQL but never understood how to build up a query them selves or how they work.
All Celko's books are great.
Hernandez's Mere Mortals book is good.
Ken Henderson's books are also excellent.
Reading up a bit on relational algebra is a good way to understand the underlying concepts of relational databases.
Jeo Clecko's SQL for smarties is excellent.
I recommend the exercises at this site: sql-ex.ru
You can even get a certificate if you do the right.
Start with Ideone and try queries on line just with a web browser.
If you program using the .NET framework, then learning LINQ might be a good place to start. The LINQ "engine" will handle the back end communication with the database (or objects, or entities, or XML, etc.) for you. If you want to dig deeper, you can explore the SQL generated by the LINQ that you write.
If you already know a thing or two about web applications, then that would be a good place to start. Nearly every serious webapp uses an SQL database as its backend.
The folks at Head First have come out with a book. Going by how good their other books are, I'd recommend this one. Haven't read it yet though. (LINK)
You may want to consider starting with MySQL as it is widely documented and very easy to get started with. You can download the Community Edition and then add the GUI Tools and you'll both GUI and command line interfaces.
Read a book to start learning about SQL. I read Beginning SQL Queries from Apress not long ago, and found it clear and logically written for a beginner (I reviewed it for a colleague).
I learnt 90% of what I know about SQL from here. In 1997.
I think it still stands up.
Hey although not complete it's great to get hands on with SQLite as mentioned above, Google 'Learn SQL the hard way' and there is an online book which you can work through which uses SQLite.
Google is great for downloading pdf's for free 'Cough Cough' but try http://www.sqlfiddle.com/
It's an online platform which is free! No log in required just go to their page, create your database in whichever language you want (That's the best bit I choose T-SQL as I'm learning that), and then you can query it as much as you like. I'm learning with a pdf file which has opensource SQL files you can download to follow along, and SQLFiddle has been great to learn vendor specific SQL.