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Database help - Complete, complete beginner.

Arghus

Hi there,

I would appreciate any help out there that anyone could supply about anything to do with Databases.

I've started a college course this year and databases is one of the modules that is on it. We're starting from the real basics, but at even that level I'm struggling. My work and educational background is pretty far from any of it and everything feels like Greek to me. The lecturer runs through concepts at a hundred miles an hour and the labs are useless and everyone else seems to be doing alright. Christ, it's a nightmare.

So it's stressing me out to no end. Are there any resources out there - youtube, sites, even good old fashioned books - that could help a total, total novice get up to speed in either/or using database related software - MySQL etc, etc - or some of the theoretical stuff. I can't flunk this course, so I going to have to learn and I'm willing to work bloody hard, but I'm going to have to do the hard work myself. So it'd be great to get some advice.

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phildin

I can't post a link but Philip Greenspun wrote a very good online (free) book called SQL for Web Nerds. If you search for that on Google, it should be the first result you get. It dates from around 2000 but it's all still relevant.

Pelvis

Which aspects are you having trouble with specifically?

Buford T Justice

More specifically, are they teaching any specific database, as some behave differently than others.

Arghus

Buford T Justice wrote: »

More specifically, are they teaching any specific database, as some behave differently than others.

We learning about relational databases at the moment I think? A lot about Erd's and such. Software we are using is MySql. I don't really know what else to add, I'm starting from a place of profound ignorance.

brevity

There is bound to be something out there for MySQL.

https://youtu.be/yPu6qV5byu4

It has 1.4 million views

Check the Udemy free courses thread in Bargain Alerts - I’ve seen MySQL courses in there plenty of times

iLikeWaffles

Just recently started learning SQL server on a software course and its really not at all hard once you get used to it. The Syntax is self explanatory. First and foremost with any database I was taught before even creating a Table get your ER-Diagram sorted, this is a major help and the base for wrapping your head around it. It took about 3 projects (small) to get used to using an ER-Digram.

It is extremely daunting at first as the shear size of some databases can be mind-numbingly extraordinary. It is a mistake to think of a database as a lot of entries. Your Relationships is what is doing the work. The entities, although different data making up the size will always be the same fundamentally, i.e. first name, last name (Everyone has both) Simplify everything and you'll do just fine! Your columns hold the data type and your rows (records) hold the entities/attributes. Primary keys/Foreign keys stop duplication of data, keeping DB size to a minimum, Creating a relationship or JOIN to another table using a foreign key creates a link to that entity, giving the appearance of creating a new table (this table does not physically exist on the DB you just created it with JOIN - its filtered).

There are a lot sites that teach you the fundamentals. An ERD will be what a 3rd party will look for when maintaining or editing a database so this is pretty much a necessity to help someone understand how a Database works.

W3schools is an invaluable resource as is stackoverflow.

If you can master your ER-diagram it will make things a lot easier, There is also software that will build ER-Diagrams based on the script you feed it, I believe, I've not used any though. Get your fundamentals down. If you have any specific issues don't hesitate to ask.

Buford T Justice

Arghus wrote: »

We learning about relational databases at the moment I think? A lot about Erd's and such. Software we are using is MySql. I don't really know what else to add, I'm starting from a place of profound ignorance.

If it's ERD's and such that you're struggling with, then the biggest difficulty you're likely to have with that is a many to many relationships. This might help some way with that. It does a good job of explaining it all in simple enough terms.

Start with this, and see how it goes.

Arghus

Thanks guys. All very helpful information.

BrokenArrows

First thing you should be doing is installing MySQL on your personal computer

https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/

Download and install MySQL Community Server (this is the database software)

Download and install the MySQL Workbench (Software for viewing and configuring the database and its contents)

Once you have that running you can learn how to SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT data. Create tables etc simply by googling.

Learn SQL the hard way - https://learncodethehardway.org/sql/

Some of his other stuff is good so could be worth a look. Not had a chance to work through this one but will do so once I've time.