June 16, 2008 at 10:32 am
Hello forum...my apologies if I've placed this in the wrong section. I am a product management/business intelligence professional with three years of SQL experience. I am searching for employment right now, and want to keep practicing SQL during my off-time. Can anyone recommend any sample databases or tools that I might use? Thank you.
June 17, 2008 at 6:15 am
You might want to download "SQL Server 2005 Express Edition" with the advanced features and also the AdventureWorks database. That is the easy part. The next part is figuring out what you want to target for learning. What follows after that will need to be taylored to properly aim at the target. There are many good books available and there are many good online sources to find materials. SQL Server in particular has many good articles and resources from which you can pull.
Edit:
SQL Server 2005 Express Download:
AdventureWorks for SQL Server 2005:
http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=4004
SQL Server Mangement Studio Express:
Tutorial for using SMSS Express:
You can download books online for SQL Server Express Edition:
Many SQL Express tutorials:
http://www.microsoft.com/express/
TechNet for SQL Server:
June 17, 2008 at 6:41 am
If you can afford it, being out of work and all... buy a copy of SQL Server Developer's Edition. Should cost right around $60 USD. It's a full up copy of Enterprise Edition with the only caveat being that you cannot use it as a production database... ever. It doesn't expire in 120 days and doesn't have any limitations other that the licensing.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 17, 2008 at 11:27 am
Thank you, this is perfect! I really just want to keep up with querying and general statements, so this should be great.
June 17, 2008 at 11:46 am
Developer edition available from Amazon.com
for 44.95 and will ship next day if you elect to do so.
Did same and found it easy to install, once installed go to Microsoft and download and apply SP which expands the number of built-in reports that you can execute, those in themselves are a great learning tool.
June 17, 2008 at 11:53 am
Just to expand on Jeff's post a little. Buying the Developers Edition of SQL Server not only gives you access to all the features of the Enterprise Edition, you also get the 32-bit, 64-bit, and Itanium versions.
As you continue to expand your skills, you can work with partitioned tables, Service Broker, Anaylsis Services, Integration Services, Reporting Services as well.
Fully worth the investment if you can afford it. I spent $50.00 (US) when I purchased it when SQL Server 2005 first shipped. I plan on purchasing SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition as soon as it is available as well.
😎
June 17, 2008 at 12:11 pm
DaveR (6/17/2008)
Thank you, this is perfect! I really just want to keep up with querying and general statements, so this should be great.
Speaking from personal experience... if you really want to keep your hand in SQL Server AND learn more than any text book or course will teach you, then do get the Developers Edition and then start answering questions on this forum... especially the ones that require code!
I guarantee you that you will learn more than you ever dreamed possible. And, when you post code, don't take offense if someone says they have a better way or you made a mistake... with all the SQL Ninja's you have on this forum, you can be pretty much assured of a full code review of your code not to mention a half dozen different ways to skin the same cat. If you study those as well as writing code, you'll be just amazed at how good you actually become at SQL.
When you get good and comfortable, write an article or two... be prepared... most folks get a fair amount of criticism on just about anything they write... but those discussions are also incredibly valuable. Ignore the occasional snot nosed jerk that has nothing good to say... look for discussions that some of the "seasoned pros" put up. Who are those pros? You'll figure it out, very quickly. And don't blow off the "newbies"... all the pros on this forum were newbies at one time or another.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
June 17, 2008 at 12:59 pm
bitbucket (6/17/2008)
Developer edition available from Amazon.comfor 44.95 and will ship next day if you elect to do so.
Did same and found it easy to install, once installed go to Microsoft and download and apply SP which expands the number of built-in reports that you can execute, those in themselves are a great learning tool.
If you really want to get up on things, you can also try finding the closest Heroes Happens Here event that isn't booked. They were handing out NFR copies of Visual Studio and Windows Server, as well as whatever current beta version of SQL 2008 (should be RC0 right about now). All three give you a pretty clear idea of where things are headed, gets you access to the "new stuff", etc..., and registration is entirely free.
That combined with some decent talks should "keep you in the game". The data track was by far the hot one in my area, but getting some talks on virtualization, and the new stuff in security was pretty darn cool too.
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
March 8, 2016 at 7:23 pm
It's been nearly 3 years since your first post and I couldn't help but notice that your only 2 posts have been on this thread and you've only visited this site 17 times in total, 2 of which are consumed by this thread.
With that, I have to ask, how did things ultimately work out for you?
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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