Wanna learn SQL for a position. No previous experience…what is the most efficient way? Also, how can I list that on my resume if it is self-learnt?
take a courserra class
try this: https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/DB/2014/SelfPaced/about
also try youtube videos
to practice writing SQL add the SQLIte manager add on to Firefox. its a pretty neat add on and easy way to practice
It doesn’t matter where you learn it. If you know it, put it under skills or whatever you call that section of your resume
Igor, does the firefox addon make it easy to pull data from websites? Ex: select tablename from www.examplesite.com ?
just curious if there is a difference between desktop and browser sqlite
I have a MacBook Air. Does this limit my chance to practice on my own?
I think it is easier to find tools to practice with WIndows right?
I am such a newbie in the tech world…
Zxf, the browser addon should work for a mac too
There are Mac tools.
If all you need to do is use SQL to extract data, it’s pretty simple. You can probably learn most of what you need in an afternoon.
If you need to create entire databases,that’s a trickier problem and needs some study. I used a book called “Head First SQL”. It’s kind of a campy series, but they do a great job of figuring out the questions you are likely to wonder about and answer them as you go along.
If you need to update and add data to an existing database, that’s a difficulty level that’s in the middle. It might take you a weekend of practicing.
there are some Mac tools that I use, so it’s possible. I will look them up for you. PM me if I get distracted and forget.
PM me…
i have not done that yet. i only pull stuff from tables on my pc.
you can try playing around with it or checking youtube
Thanks bchad! I think the postion mostly needs analysts to extrat data from database for reporting/analysis. I am not sure if updating/adding data to an existing database is required but it is definitly good to know!
I saw ppl recommending Sams Teach Yoursel SQL in 10 minutes on the forum. I just bought it and will read it today.
I am also watching videos on Courseram so what is left to do is real practice to get some hands on experience.
Yes, teach yourself SQL in 10 mins isn’t bad for what you describe. It should get you most of what you need.
I looked on my disk for what I use to do SQL stuff. It’s called Sequel Pro, and I think it’s either free (possibly crippleware) or inexpensive. There were a few other sql clients that I found by web search but this one seemed to be best for me. Search for “Mac SQL Client” and maybe add “free” to the list if you want.
I do a fair amount of stuff in R, so have evolved into using that for much of my sql needs, since the data tends to go straight into R anyway. I’m not sure how the Excel wizard works, but I imagine it’s not that complex either.
you need special prviliage to run the update and modify query.
If you really want to learn SQL then best way is to get the paper and start writing keywords which are essential to write a query. Practice Practice.
And then you should learn the basic stuff to name variables and characters in SQL. Pretty easy but it very helpful when you start to write query. I guess your job is not to run a optimized query which was my case because I used to get review from tech lead of GSK to make sure queries are optimized to save time. As you are a newbie start from here http://www.w3schools.com/sql/. Whenever I had to train new software developers I always asked them to go through the basics from W3School in case they weren’t trained in that laungaues.
I would like to know which Database management software systems are you using? Is it microsoft sql server or oracle? Microsoft sql server has very extended frontend which makes developer life easy but becomes a hurdle when it comes to learning the stuff. My favorite was ORACLE. God what the hell of a DBMS people have made. But SAP is trying to steal their market now…anyways…
For few weeks I would just write simple query for select, create, modify, view, …etc and run queries on dummy tables. Once I’ll have better command on my queries I would run advanced queries where I would join for conjuction so that I can filter the data across multiple tables. Remember whole concept of DMBS is to reap the benefits of relational database. You have to learn how to use join…essential.
Other things worth noticing is error messages. Don’t ignore them and don’t jump to google for clarification. Read them over and over. This will develop skill to understand what you did wrong. I used to work with this ORACLE guy who could simply tell people what did they wrong in code by looking at error message. It is a skills. So read them and try to understand. You can also learn a bit about services which are required to run DBMS. So if anything happens with connectivity you got to first make sure that your DMBS services are up and running. You can also check out query for making connections but I would leave that for now.
SQL is all about logic. Where is data stored? How to fetch it? How to present it? Is it optimized?
I hope that helps. Good luck. PM me for more details. I can refer you to more sources.