Excellent resource for learning SQL basics

[Quentin Brown]

I recently began trying to learn some SQL and came across this resource online. The course is not yet complete but what is there so far sinks straight in for me, I really gel with the learning/teaching style, very clear & concise.

http://sql.learncodethehardway.org/ Apologies - For some reason my account wont let me post links or domain page references and I am not part of the Summer School group yet on my account...


Any other resources for learning about SQL and databases in general would be appreciated as coming new to it all from Filemaker where it's all hidden from you some basic principles are missing for me like are table joins permanent or only temporary as part of searches? What are the relative merits and features of MySQL vs SQLite. Are there some good free tools out there for visually designing and managing your database structure in SQLite or MySQL on OSX?


Q.

**Updated with link - apparently you have to have been a forum member for a week and have made 5 posts to be able to post links....

[FourthWorld]

SQLite is a great starting point for learning SQL, and being public domain and fully bundled with LC it's also the easiest.

General free info on using SQL can be found all over the Web, but I like the concise writing style of W3Schools:
http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

Among paid options this book from O"Reilly has been the best into to SQLite I've seen yet, covering all the basics along with differences between SQLite and MySQL, and covering features unique to SQLite:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596521196.do