SQL Summary

Congratulations - you've reached the end!

This SQL tutorial has provided you with a quick and easy way to learn SQL.

We began by learning that SQL stands for Structured Query Language, and is an ANSI standard. We then learned the basic SQL syntax, before continuing on to the SELECT statement - probably the most commonly used statement.

We learned that there are various keywords and aggregate functions that can be included into SQL statements such as WHERE, COUNT, DISTINCT etc. These are all part of the DML (Data Manipulation Language).

Then, after covering the INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements, we learned that there are various commands for performing administration tasks against a database. For example, there are commands for creating database objects (CREATE DATABASE, CREATE TABLE etc), and there are commands for modifying (or altering) database objects (ALTER DATABASE, ALTER TABLE etc). These commands are part of the DDL (Data Definition Language).

Where to Next?

If you're keen to get into SQL programming, you should download a database management system (if you haven't already) and practice SQL statements against it. You should also read your database system's documentation for any proprietary commands, functions or features. For example, does your database system have an automatic scheduler? Are you able to link your database server to a database on another server? How do you perform backups on your database system?

And lastly, if you're new to web development, check out one of the other tutorials on Quackit - for example, the HTML Tutorial, the CSS Tutorial, or the JavaScript Tutorial.

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