Learning SQL

El_Rey

I am interested in learning SQL from scratch and have seen an Udemy course for a reasonable price. Would this be the best way to learn it given I have no prior knowledge? 

Sandtree

What is your motivation for doing so? Where do you want to get to with it?

I'm personally self taught mainly from the likes of https://www.w3schools.com/sql/ and a "For Dummies" book... I am competent enough to do one off analysis type queries (eg I was able to build a pricing model to audit the invoices raised by a company against their contractual rates) but would defer to a developer to make the queries more efficient and wouldn't know how to approach the newer db concepts like "big data", "data lakes" etc or manage a server.

If you've got your own projects you want to achieve I think self taught can be more realistic... if you dont have any ideas for projects then self taught is much harder.

Outside that it depends what learning style you like... I am comfortable reading to learn, others prefer to have someone to talk to etc.

LeafGreen

A bit more info would be useful...
are you looking to learn it for your own amusement or as a potential career.  Do you have a particular project in mind, any past IT experience?
which DBMS are you interested in? (MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle etc etc etc)
which course are you looking at?

stuartp2000

I am using a Udemy course for python its 100 reports in 100 days or something like that.
find it a really good structure and starting point.

as others have said it’s about what you are looking for but for me it was basic core skills I could then Build on.

El_Rey

grahamgoo said:

A bit more info would be useful...
are you looking to learn it for your own amusement or as a potential career.  Do you have a particular project in mind, any past IT experience?
which DBMS are you interested in? (MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle etc etc etc)
which course are you looking at?

I am looking to learn it as another skill to add to my CV in the hope it will open up some other opportunities for me and give me some data analysis experience. I currently work within the NHS as an Office Co-ordinator/Project Co-ordinator and I don't have any previous IT experience. 

El_Rey

Just bumping this to see if anyone can advise if learning SQL on Udemy would be effective. 

hyubh

When I've interviewed for a junior data analyst, existing SQL knowledge isn't super-important even though the job would be strongly SQL based. More of interest is the candidate having practical knowledge of the domain, preferably with experience of working with data in (say) Excel. If the candidate can demonstrate both of those things, then I'd be reasonably confident they can pick up joins and aggregations in SQL pretty quickly, and from there potentially more complex or dialect-specific things.

If a candidate were to say, well I know nothing about the sort of data your company works with, but I've completed a SQL course on Udemy, I wouldn't be very impressed. But if they said (and could demonstrate) knowledge of the domain, conceded they don't have experience of it as a data analyst as such, however they are looking to get into that so have (through their own initiative) pursed a SQL course on Udemy, I would be much more interested. If they could then explain how they might use SQL to analyse data in the domain, then that would make me keen to forward them onto the next stage of the recruitment process. It wouldn't have to be a complicated example as such - blathering on with a textbook definition of different join types won't impress me much - just an example that shows they can apply what they have learned.

Doshwaster

Some excellent advice above from @hyubh

Knowing some SQL is a useful skill to have in an IT/software job but I know several senior developers who can write C++ or Java in their sleep who couldn't write a basic join statement

MattMattMattUK

The advice from hyubh is very good.

With regard to SQL I would say start off with the free resources online and see how you get on, you might find you have an aptitude, you might find you struggle and want to take a different route. You might as well give yourself a basic grounding from the free resources before committing to a paid course. 

El_Rey

Thanks for all of the advice. I will hold off on paying for the Udemy course and see what free resources I can find to assess my levels of interest and aptitude. 

Stenwold

El_Rey said:

Thanks for all of the advice. I will hold off on paying for the Udemy course and see what free resources I can find to assess my levels of interest and aptitude. 

Also, never pay full price for a Udemy course - they have special offers on most courses every couple of months.