SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It’s the go-to query language for most of us who develop relational databases. If you want to work with relational database management systems, learning SQL is pretty much non-negotiable. Especially if you want to become a SQL developer.
If you’re interested in becoming a SQL developer, here are ten essential SQL concepts that you need to learn.
Continue readingWhen I first started building websites 25 years ago, everything was static. Our primary building block was HTML, with a bit of CSS and JavaScript sprinkled in for good measure. Our content would be incorporated into the HTML documents, and so there was no separation of functionality and content.
Regardless, I was just happy to be able to build these amazing things that I could publish for the world to see.
But within a few years I had quickly learned about the power of databases and how they could completely transform the websites we were building at the time.
Continue readingPrimary keys are a crucial part of relational database management systems (RDBMSs). Most of the time we create a primary key constraint against a single column that is the unique identifier for the table.
But we can also create primary key constraints against more than one column. When we do this, we call it a composite primary key.
Composite keys can be handy when we don’t have a single column that contains unique values, but multiple columns can be combined to create a unique value.
Continue readingBehind every well-structured and organised SQL database lies a treasure trove of information called metadata. Metadata is data that provides information about other data. In relational database management systems, this metadata can typically include information like the names of databases, tables, columns, the data type of a column, access privileges, and much more.
The SQL standard provides a collection of tables/views that allow us to view metadata about the objects in the database. The SQL standard refers to this as the information schema and calls it INFORMATION_SCHEMA.
In the world of database management systems (DBMSs) and computer programming, CRUD is an acronym that stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete. These are considered to be the four basic operations of persistent storage.
Let’s take a look at how CRUD fits into database management systems and programming in general.
Continue readingWhen using relational database management systems (RDBMSs) we often hear terms like DDL, DML, DQL, DCL, and TCL. But what exactly are they?
In this article we’ll look at what TCL stands for in the context of SQL, and what it does.
Continue readingWhen using relational database management systems (RDBMSs) we often hear terms like DDL, DML, DQL, TCL, and DCL. But what exactly are they?
In this article we’ll look at what DCL stands for in the context of SQL, and what it does.
Continue readingWe often hear terms like DDL, DML, DQL, TCL, and DCL when using relational database management systems (RDBMSs). But what exactly are they?
In this article we’ll look at what DQL stands for, and what it does.
Continue readingWe often hear terms like DDL, DML, DQL, and DCL when using relational database management systems (RDBMSs). But what exactly are they?
In this article we’ll look at what DML stands for, and what it does.
Continue readingWe often encounter terms like DDL, DML, DQL, DCL, and TCL when using relational database management systems (RDBMSs). But what do they mean?
In this article we’ll look at what DDL stands for and what it does.
Continue reading