Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

sqlnoir.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 90 posts

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#61

Post by caro_kann »

RvdV wrote: post #58

I like it! Very fun! Few ideas: - The "submit" box isn't clear on whether it needs the name or the suspect id for the first case - It would be nice to have a "copy to notes" button in the output - It would be nice to have some docs on what functions are available / which dialect this is. I think this very valuable, it's so much more easy to learn if you actually have a small project to work on

> - The "submit" box isn't clear on whether it needs the name or the suspect id for the first case

I think it's implemented to be general, they wrote what to submit in 'Objectives' section though. For me as a user, I deduced that they wanted "suspect" name, after all, this is a detective game.

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#62

Post by fodkodrasz »

The idea is good, but the UI is all but immersive.

Things that would it make more immersive:

- autocomplete

- and/or the ability to view the schema alongside the query (on a wide enough screen)

- a way to copy table and column names easily with a click (table names cannot be selected at all!)

- ability to just add more queryies under/over the already executed ones, instead of only being able to replace them.

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#64

Post by chrisBHappy »

dylan604 wrote: post #43

tables: crime_scene, witnesses, interviews, suspects. one of these is not like the others. I've seen it advised to list table names as plurals as it holds more than one of the things. I've been told plural is dumb. I've not yet run into mixed plurals and singular table names. Sure, it's a style, but pick one??? I'm guessing this is like tabs vs spaces, but would a tab person use spaces randomly or vice versa? otherwi…

Thank you for pointing that out. During the creation of the cases I did not take much consideration on naming the tables. I will either make all of them plural or singular.

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#65

Post by chrisBHappy »

webninja wrote: post #38

How do you make money doing this and if you earn nothing, how can you afford to in this economy?

Glad you asked. I don’t want to put a price tag on it because I believe everyone should have access to learning for free. The right to learn shouldn’t be behind a paywall. That said, I’ve added a ‘Buy Me a Coffee’ link for anyone who wants to support the project. No pressure, just an option!

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#66

Post by chrisBHappy »

rockfishroll wrote: post #29

I solved all of them. Minor nitpick: Since every criminal confesses to their crime, the fastest way to solve most of these is to query the confessions table for strings like '%i did%' or '%kill%'.

Haha. You found a cheat code I guess. I would have to think of hiding the answers from plain sight for the next cases or adding some more rows that include these specific strings.

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#67

Post by chrisBHappy »

haliskerbas wrote: post #23

I just shared this with folks, it looks incredible! I’m giving it a try myself too. By the way, I was trying to use a bunch of one-liner SQL statements to explore the data, and it seems like the editor doesn’t handle comments very well. Is there a way to make it work better?

Yep, comments are broken. Currently working on a fix.

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#68

Post by chrisBHappy »

yesthisiswes wrote: post #26

This is cool! Great job! I completed the first challenge. I guess I’m used to sql server management studio I tried running multiple queries at once and wasn’t able to. I also tried writing a comment with two dashes to keep track of the id’s and it replaced most of my query with dashes. It might have something to do with being on mobile on iOS.

Thanks for pointing that out. I just fixed the single line comments. It should work as expected now.

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#69

Post by daluc »

laowantong wrote: post #55

A great addition to a field where there aren't many offerings: SQL Island ( https://sql-island.informatik.uni-kl.de ) and SQL Murder Mystery ( https://mystery.knightlab.com ) come to mind. The mechanism of SQL Noir is close to that of the latter, i.e., an undirected, essentially standalone adventure. I myself am working on SQLab, a SQL game engine that allows you to augment an arbitrary base with exercises on that ba…

Great project, totally agree! Also further great projects posted here. I'll chip in here my project of an SQL Game Console that comes with a SQL Game Editor -- allowing students to build their own SQL escape game in the browser: https://eskuel.de . It's been fun trying this out in the class room (only available in German right now). Example game: https://eskuel.de/zoo/

Re: Show HN: SQL Noir – Learn SQL by solving crimes

#70

Post by tiu »

fodkodrasz wrote: post #62

The idea is good, but the UI is all but immersive. Things that would it make more immersive: - autocomplete - and/or the ability to view the schema alongside the query (on a wide enough screen) - a way to copy table and column names easily with a click (table names cannot be selected at all!) - ability to just add more queryies under/over the already executed ones, instead of only being able to replace them.

Agree with all but autocomplete should either be a hidden feature or disabled by default since I think it takes away from the immersion as well forces you to recall.

Maybe enabled on a NG+?

Post reply on HN