Been offered by the company I do IT support for some free training from external sources……..has to be Microsoft training so they can keep their accreditation (or whatever its called)

So i’m thinking about some SQL training, something I have very little experience with and it can’t hurt my CV

So the question is, where to start? really have to be online or distance learning but would anyone have any suggestions?

Sorry no idea, but it might be worth clarifying for others if you just want to learn the intricacies of SQL or whether you need to learn about relational databases, their design and how to query them using SQL.

A 3-5 day intro course at a training company would be the obvious choice. Failing that buy a book.

select * from courses where cost=”free” ;

🙂

Woody: 😆

Basic stuff here
Linky

Are they training you on Access or SQL?

If you know where to look ( something to do with a pirate ship? Don’t quote me on that… ), there are some excellent training videos floating around on the net.

Having an understanding of the SQL (even if it’s the basics) will make your course go much smoother.

Currently watching the CBT Nuggets CCNA vids.

I bought SQL Cookbook and Learning SQL by Oreilly media because my job has somehow evolved into needing a knowledge of SQL.

IanMunro +1 – to my mind there are 3 possibilities:

1. Database installation + administration
2. Database design
3. Database querying + form generation

What has ‘form generation’ got to do with sql?

What has ‘form generation’ got to do with sql?

Data isn’t much use if you can’t get it out of the database, I’m guessing many an employee has been sent on an “SQL” course with the idea of being able to extract that data and present it to management.

Does your company utilise MS SQL Server, MS Access or both?

Personally, I’d start with learning to write SQL queries. This can be applied to both applications, and indeed is relevant to other database vendor’s products.

SQL Server is a suite of database applications and there are umpteen ways to go if you start down this road. Basic database administration courses can be useful but usually have a pre-requisite of at least some SQL.

Data isn’t much use if you can’t get it out of the database, I’m guessing many an employee has been sent on an “SQL” course with the idea of being able to extract that data and present it to management

I have no idea what you even mean by a form. You seem to be confusing the database layer with an application layer specific to a particular vendor.

That’s the point of SQL. It’s vendor, and application layer, independent.

i picked up basics from the link pennine put up and a couple of other online free tuition sites (with regard to writing SQL queries), and was kind of forced into learning basic Access db admin stuff at my last job.
i’m currently working through some CBT stuff with regard to SQL server 2005 admin and i reckon i’ll probably do at least some exams towards getting my MCITP within the next month or so. it’ll be nice to stick on my CV i guess!

I have no idea what you even mean by a form. You seem to be confusing the database layer with an application layer specific to a particular vendor.

That’s the point of SQL. It’s vendor, and application layer, independent.

Not at all, I work with databases all day long, I’m quite aware of the difference. And I love your platform independent optimism, I’ll bear that in mind the next time we’re migrating our applications from Oracle to MS SQL Server.

My point was that the OP is being offered MS specific training, and that being able to use SQL + MS tools to generate forms and pretty reports for management would probably be quite a good move.