What follows is a response I sent via Slack to one of our newest UX Designers. She comes to us by way of another sister business unit within Oracle. She was looking for some resources on where to learn/get better acquainted with SQL (Which for a UX and/or UI designer, I think is a really impressive!).
As I was putting this list together, the thought occurred to me, “hey, I think this stuff could be helpful to others outside of Oracle too!” So here we are. What follows (with minor edits) is a list of resources that I’ve found over the past year that have helped me to better understand SQL. Maybe you’ll discover another previously unknown resource.
Resources
In no particular order (seriously, these came to me at random):
Update to the list. Thanks to Chris Saxon!
Dev Gym
What is it? Verbatim, here is the “elevator pitch” from our site:
Learn SQL in this FREE 12-part boot camp. It will help you get started with Oracle Database and SQL. The course is a series of videos to teach you database concepts, interactive SQL tutorials, and quizzes to reinforce the ideas. Complete the course to get your free certificate.
Link to course
Hey, pretty cool you end up with a free certificate too!
NOTE: You'll need to create an Oracle account first. You can sign-up here.
O’Reilly
Within Oracle, we have access to O’Reilly. You may, too, check internally. This is the second employer I’ve seen where this is available. It’s chock full of digital learning content – videos, tutorials, books, and guides. You can even create “Playlists” for similar topics, here are mine:
Live SQL
Oracle has a browser-based app, Live SQL, where you can learn all sorts of SQL. I don’t learn like this, but others might (I need skill acquisition to be more practical). If you learn through rote, then this is the site for you!
SQL Worksheet in the Database Actions Launchpad
Sign up for one of our OCI Free Tier accounts and create an Autonomous Database (ADB). After that you can get a feel for how Database Actions (aka SQL Developer Web) works and how to interact with your database.
From there, if you want to look at SQL specifically, I would focus on the SQL Worksheet. Once there, you can practice simple SQL queries.
Reader: I don't know your level, so you may already be more familiar with this than me. But it's free, so why not?
LiveLabs
This is a straightforward and approachable entry point. Simply typing “sql” reveals tons of relevant workshops. LiveLabs home.
Oracle SQL Language Guide
This is the official guide for the current Oracle version 21 database. It would be a good thing to bookmark. But there is so much stuff; you’d want to skip sitting down and reading through it in one sitting.
PL/SQL
This is a PL/SQL language guide. I can only explain PL/SQL as “SQL Advanced.” It’s not better; it is a way to give you more control over when, how, and where to use SQL (my interpretation). Wikipedia does a better job of explaining. You won’t be using this initially. I’m just starting to get into it after a year. But the sooner you can use it, the better!
W3 Schools
Great for many languages (as well as CSS/HTML). It is a memory HOG, though! I don’t know what is happening (probably the ads), but at least on Firefox, your computer’s fans will be working double-time. So get in, get out; otherwise, your computer will slow to a crawl. Link to SQL topic.
Errors/troubleshooting
StackOverflow
Using the error code (or parts of it) as a keyword in StackOverflow works quite well. Like this:
You can even create Watched Tags to keep up on topics that you are most interested in.
YouTube
YouTube works well too (duh). Particularly this user!
Nothing fancy about these two suggestions...I almost always defer to practical videos for learning/diagnosing issues.
The End
And that’s all I can think of for right now. Those should set you on the right path. Did I miss anything?
Leave a comment for your go-to SQL resources, I’ll add them to the list!