SQL Pre-pre-Basics

[QUantumAnenome]

Well, I'm trying to learn SQL All the tutorials I find on the web start out assuming everything is already set up, and have me learning SQL commands.
Well, I need to back way up many steps first! I can't just start entering commands into a DOS box...

So, if you know of a 'how to get started in SQL' that does NOT leave out the all important steps of what SQL is (query language? Implies a new language and I need a new compiler? Or is it really an API and I just need a library for pythin or C++? etc. etc.) or how to fet it started from scratch (I assume I need to be running a server, are these standard things already to go, or do we write our own servers for our particular needs...)

Thanks,

Quantum

[redhead]

Check out the MySQL documentation specificaly the Installing on windows section might be usefull, after that, the Connecting to and disconnecting will shed some light into how to get started.

SQL is a database, like access or Oracle or any of that sort, the communication language with it is called SQL-queries, once you've set up the actual database, you can start issuing all the queries you've been trying to figure out, and see how the database respond..
Mostly you'll probably get a ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; but that just tells you, the way you've formed the query isn't following what's expected.

Oh, and don't forget to end each query with a ;

[technobard]

A slight bit of clarification: SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is the language used to query, update, delete, and insert data in a database. SELECT ID, FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME FROM PERSON is an example of an SQL statement.

All of the popular databases today are considered relational databases. This just means that the data is stored in row-based tables (like PERSON in the example above) and that the data in different tables can be related through common columns and rules to govern how the data is related. For example, a "PERSON (table) has one or more ADDRESS (table)" describes a relationship between the PERSON data and the ADDRESS data. There are other database types, object oriented databases being one example, but because relational databases are so popular, when you see the word "database" written, the author is almost always referring to a relational database.

I have seen some people refer to Microsoft's SQL Server as simply "SQL", but that is an unfortunate and confusing reference.

I agree with Redhead that the simplest way to get started is to use MySQL on Windows.

[QUantumAnenome]

Thanks redhead, had it dowloaded, up and running in 15 minutes!