Denny Cherry Feb 12, 2011   8:15 PM GMT

First what is your goal? Is it to become a DBA, or a database developer, or a business analyst? If you already work for a company ask your IT people what database platform they use. That would be a good start. It'll either be Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or DB2. Don't worry about getting a certification right away. The certifications are designed to show that you have been using the platform for a couple of years. Having a certification with no experience will not do you any good what so ever. No one will hire someone with a certification with no experience, and if they do you won't keep that job for very long.

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Jeevan2310 Feb 12, 2011   9:35 PM GMT

Thanks for both the replies. @Rechil: I will look through both the sites you have given and if there are more questions, then I will get back to you. @Mrdenny: I am presently looking for a job as an analyst and it seems most companies are looking for someone with a knowledge of SQL whether it be Microsoft SQL, Oracle or MySQL. I am at the moment trying to learn one of the SQL packages (preferably one thats cheap to purchase) on my own and thought that a certification with one of the vendor products would enhance my chances. I do not have any experience, yes, but I have got to start somewhere to get it right? @both: I have looked at MySQL and since its open sourced, thought that would be good. Comments welcome on this!

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Mortimer1 Feb 14, 2011   4:02 PM GMT

So there is the ANSI SQL Standard which most of the major Database software vendors will support. This is not optimal in that it's a lowest common denominator approach. This will be useful if you want to be a data modeler, but if you wish to be a DBA then you will need to target the specific SQL implementation for a particular Database. A number of years back there was a movement to support Java in stored procedures for some databases, but that does not cover all databases. Unfortunately in order to be proficient in a particular database you will need to choose the one you want to support and then learn it. And especially in the case for databases a specific implementation will affect the different attributes of a database, so while getting a certification is useful almost all companies will require you have some amount of practicial real world experience with a database, unless you already work for said company and are transferring departments.

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Denny Cherry Feb 14, 2011   6:11 PM GMT

To work as a data analyst (or really any sort of analyst) you basically just need to learn how to select data from the database. You don't care about index tuning, etc as you won't have access to do any of that anyway. You can start with the ANSI standard SQL, but there will be gaps as done of the vendors have implemented the entire standard, and all of the vendors have put their own spin on the languages. For example MySQL uses the keyword LIMIT, where SQL Server and Oracle (I think) use TOP to select just a specific number of rows. Both Microsoft and Oracle have free versions of the databases that you can download called the Express editions. These are fully functional versions of the databases. They are just limited in how much data you can put into the database, but for your needs these should work just fine. If you need more power, on the SQL Server side you can get the SQL Server Developer Edition for $50 US from Fry's or online directly from Microsoft. This is basically the Enterprise Edition of SQL Server, but it isn't licensed for production use. Any of the products will get you started, just be forewarned that there are differences between them. I wrote a Back to Basics series a while back, and one of the topics was the select statement. It is from a SQL Server point of view, but it'll probably get you started.

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