60 Best Resources for Learning SQL

Are you looking for the best way to learn SQL?

Are you unsure where to begin?

The good news is that there are a lot of SQL tutorials online. There are many ways to learn SQL that are suitable for different people. Some people like reading articles or books, others like watching videos. Some have exercises, some have a practice SQL sandbox, some don’t.

This list contains 60 different places to learn SQL. Take a look at the list and find one that looks good to you!

Criteria

This list contains a range of resources for learning SQL. For it to appear on this list, it needed to:

• Cover the basics of SQL. Many intermediate-level resources didn’t make this list for that reason.
• Not a vendor’s manual. While the Oracle and MySQL documentation can explain the syntax, other places are usually better at explaining SQL.
• Available in English.

Several resources were found in my research but not included in this list.

Also, there are several websites that offer paid courses (Lynda, Pluralsight, Udemy). Each of them has hundreds of SQL courses. Rather than list them all individually here, I’ve deliberately listed one entry for each, and you can visit each website and decide which course is the best way to learn SQL for you.

My Shortlist

I’ve listed over 50 tutorials here for learning SQL.

Don’t want to sift through them all and just want to learn from a good quality tutorial?

Here’s my short list, in no particular order, based on my own experience and recommendations online (e.g. StackOverflow, Reddit):

• SQL Zoo (SQL Zoo)
• SQLBolt
• SQL In Motion (Manning)
• Various SQL courses (Pluralsight)
• MySQL Tutorial
• Vertabelo Academy (Vertabelo)
• Introduction to Oracle SQL (Database Star)
• Databases for Developers 12-Week Bootcamp (Oracle)
• YouTube – Oracle SQL Tutorial (Caleb Curry)

Click on each of them to be taken to that place in this guide for more information.

Which SQL Distribution Should I Learn?

This list contains resources for learning many different types of SQL: Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and more.

Which version should you learn? And does it matter? These versions of SQL are offered by different vendors. They are all based on the SQL standard language, which is probably about 80% of their features. So, learning one vendor’s SQL makes it pretty easy to learn another vendor’s SQL.

• Oracle: database is targeted towards large organisations, but they also offer a small, free version called Oracle Express.
• SQL Server: a Microsoft database, also targeted towards large organisations. Good integration with other Microsoft technologies.
• MySQL: this is a smaller, free to use version of the SQL database, that uses the standard SQL. It doesn’t have the capabilities for larger systems that Oracle and SQL Server have, though.
• PostgreSQL: another well-known free to use database system. Comparable to MySQL. Read: why use PostgreSQL.
• SQLite: a free standalone database, often used in small applications and mobile apps.

If you want a summary of the commands for each vendor, check out the SQL Cheat Sheets.

So which version should you choose?

I think it depends where you want to go with your career.

• Web development for small/mid-sized projects or personal projects? MySQL or PostgreSQL.
• Web development with .Net technologies? SQL Server
• Web development with Java or Oracle technologies? Oracle
• Database administration career? Oracle or SQL Server
• Mobile app development? SQLite.

These are just general suggestions. You can easily switch between types of SQL databases after learning the differences and syntax related to it.

Let’s take a look at the list!

Conclusion – Best Way to Learn SQL

This list contains many different resources for learning SQL. There’s a range of text-based resources (articles and websites), videos, free and paid courses, and even interactive courses.

Do you have any suggestions to add to this list? Add them into the comments below and if they meet the criteria I’ll add them here!