Grant Fritchey (2/5/2013)

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Best way to learn the basics is by doing. You've already been pointed out how to get a copy of SQL Server to play with. Next up, a project. Start building a database to management something in your house; movies, recipes, comics, something. You can work on the basics that way.

The bad news, if you REALLY want a career in IT, you need to learn to read books. While the medium of paper is dying, most of the in depth, technically edited for accuracy, vetted and approved information on the details of the language and structure of SQL Server is still in a recognizable thing we still refer to as books. You can learn a lot from online articles (but that's just like reading a section or a chapter of a book) and from blog posts (which, again, we're talking the same reading skills as comes from books), but you're still primarily going to be reading. The problem with articles and blogs is that they don't necessarily go through a technical review process. I try to test anything I post on my blog to ensure what I'm saying is accurate, but I get things wrong. So, your best bet is going to the books. Also, you're going to have to read the documentation provided by any language or toolset to understand how it works. Even if it's online, as SQL Server has it's documentation, it's back to reading.

So while you can get through the basics by pounding away at stuff, you can't learn the intermediate and advanced topics without documentation.

If you really hate reading, IT might be a lousy career choice.

Grant Fritchey (2/5/2013)

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Best way to learn the basics is by doing. You've already been pointed out how to get a copy of SQL Server to play with. Next up, a project. Start building a database to management something in your house; movies, recipes, comics, something. You can work on the basics that way.

The bad news, if you REALLY want a career in IT, you need to learn to read books. While the medium of paper is dying, most of the in depth, technically edited for accuracy, vetted and approved information on the details of the language and structure of SQL Server is still in a recognizable thing we still refer to as books. You can learn a lot from online articles (but that's just like reading a section or a chapter of a book) and from blog posts (which, again, we're talking the same reading skills as comes from books), but you're still primarily going to be reading. The problem with articles and blogs is that they don't necessarily go through a technical review process. I try to test anything I post on my blog to ensure what I'm saying is accurate, but I get things wrong. So, your best bet is going to the books. Also, you're going to have to read the documentation provided by any language or toolset to understand how it works. Even if it's online, as SQL Server has it's documentation, it's back to reading.

So while you can get through the basics by pounding away at stuff, you can't learn the intermediate and advanced topics without documentation.


If you really hate reading, IT might be a lousy career choice.