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Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

cs-blog.khanacademy.org

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Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#41
post #10

Imo every developer should be comfortable with sql, upto joins at least. Basic data modelling is also invaluable.

Serious question...what kind of developer can you be without knowing SQL?

I've been programming professionally for 6 years and only just started using SQL for the first time for a side project -- some web dev stuff.

I know Prolog pretty well so it's not like I was completely flabbergasted by it, I just had no need to use SQL before.

Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#43
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a question for English.StackExchange. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/5265/an-sql-serve... http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1016/do-you-use-a... That said... As a native English speaker, I can infer your pronunciation from which of the options of "a" and "an" you decide to use. FWIW, "an" is appropriate for any word starting with a vowel sound (whether or not it actually starts with a vow…

On some level, I think you can still apply the "starts with a vowel" rule for SQL, since in this case "S" is really standing in for "ess" (assuming you're not saying "sequel", which I've never gotten into the habit of doing).

Yes - exactly my point. It is interesting to learn, as another commented somewhere in this thread, that my brain just invokes the appropriate "sequel" vs. S.Q.L. just from whether or not someone includes the ever-so-important "n."

Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#44
post #2

This is great! I created http://sqlteaching.com , so it's wonderful to see Khan Academy's take. If anyone from KA would like to chat with me about SQL tutorials or anything else in general, feel free to reach out- rhc2104@columbia.edu

It was nice to find your site in addition the the Khan Academy's SQL course. Maybe I will try to direct my kids to walk through this.

I am curious if you know a resource that would start approximately where your site/tool stops. I know there are books and reference manuals - but I would love to see the intermediate SQL version of your tool - including things like cursors, stored procedures and Common Table Expressions.

Or does SQL at the next level lose too much of its uniformity? And, you would have to make separate sites for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server etc.

Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#46
post #44
post #2

This is great! I created http://sqlteaching.com , so it's wonderful to see Khan Academy's take. If anyone from KA would like to chat with me about SQL tutorials or anything else in general, feel free to reach out- rhc2104@columbia.edu

It was nice to find your site in addition the the Khan Academy's SQL course. Maybe I will try to direct my kids to walk through this. I am curious if you know a resource that would start approximately where your site/tool stops. I know there are books and reference manuals - but I would love to see the intermediate SQL version of your tool - including things like cursors, stored procedures and Common Table Expression…

Hi mswen,

Unfortunately, I don't know of interactive tutorials that cover the things you mentioned. The Khan Academy tutorial and SQL Bolt seem to have a few topics not covered by SQL Teaching, so that is a start! (Mainly, write queries)

SQL Teaching uses SQLite because that way I don't need to maintain a backend to the site.

But if there are more advanced topics that can be taught by SQLite, feel free to make a issue in the repo. Pull requests are also welcome!

Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#47
post #10

Imo every developer should be comfortable with sql, upto joins at least. Basic data modelling is also invaluable.

Serious question...what kind of developer can you be without knowing SQL?

I was a developer for >3 years at my last job, and barely touched SQL. I did desktop software that mostly interacted with streaming data, state machines, etc, and mostly wrote limited data to flat files as text or XML where necessary. We just didn't do anything where database storage was appropriate. I worked with a few SELECT queries to get data from a legacy Access DB, but that's about it. I was probably barely at lesson 1 level on all of the linked lessons.

I have learned a lot of SQL at my current job, though. I can now admin multiple types of DB servers and write SQL up through window queries, CTEs, indexes, stored procedures, etc, so I've learned enough to be past the end of every SQL lesson I've ever seen. There's a huge amount of fascinating stuff to learn and a ton of cool stuff you can do.

Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#48
So far my experience is that getting a SQL query correct is fairly easy and usually fun but that the real difficulty, e.g., for SQL Server, is for the rest:

(1) Installation.

Grim. Barbed wire enema.

Wiped out my Windows boot partition requiring that I reinstall everything starting with the Windows DVD.

(2) Security.

The stuff with users, logins, etc. and nearly everything in SQL Server Management Studio was clear as mud. In the end:

(A) Assume that basically what is there is essentially old capabilities and access control lists, imagine how they might work, and make that a first guess. It helped.

(B) Use SQL Server Management Studio only for passively reading but never for actual management where change things.

(C) For each of the important steps in setting up security, do searches on the Internet, find standard text SQL statements, and try those. Save and profusely document the statements that do work.

(D) Do system management only with SQL statements in simple text files and executed with the SQL Server command line utility SQLCMD.EXE.

(3) Connection String.

The last time I had to get a SQL Server connection string to work took a solid week of throwing things against a wall to see if they would stick. The effort was an unanesthetized upper molar root canal procedure.

Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In today's world you could probably be powerful using the NoSQL databases. But , imho, you will still have to understand the basics of set theory. Unions, intersects, etc. But I agree with the spirit of what you're saying. A good programmer will know SQL. It's definitely not going away anytime soon.

SQL has almost no practical overlap with set theory. Relational calculus, and relational algebra, sure, but SQL neither operates on nor produces sets.

I've used intersections and unions with sql. And also Cartesian products (a cross join). Don't those count?

Re: Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy

#50
post #48

So far my experience is that getting a SQL query correct is fairly easy and usually fun but that the real difficulty, e.g., for SQL Server, is for the rest: (1) Installation. Grim. Barbed wire enema. Wiped out my Windows boot partition requiring that I reinstall everything starting with the Windows DVD. (2) Security. The stuff with users , logins , etc. and nearly everything in SQL Server Management Studio was clear…

If you want to get an understanding of basic SQL without all that overhead, you can try Microsoft Access.
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