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Databases SQL Basics Data, Databases and SQL Why This Course?

Jonathan Grieve
MOD
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,252 Points

Creating an SQL Database

The Treehouse Playground environment is great for these courses but to really test my skills in SQL I'd really like to be getting into an environment where I can create my own data, tables and run queries on then,

On the old Database Foundations course there was SQL Workbench (at least for Windows) for doing this and I believe I still I have this on my desktop but I just thought I'd take the opportunity to ask if there's anything else out there that might be good for running SQL and/or making practical use of it in the real world :)

7 Answers

Joel Bardsley
Joel Bardsley
31,246 Points

I've recently changed my local dev environment from MAMP to Vagrant with Virtualbox and I must say I'll never look back.

With those two programs downloaded and installed, all I need to do is download this github repository that will configure/setup a virtual Linux machine that I can connect my SQL program to, and I'm ready to go. I use Sequel Pro (Mac only, unfortunately) however I don't imagine there being any problems using it with SQL Workbench or something like HeidiSQL

Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,252 Points

Thanks for all your responses. :)

I'll keep these links as bookmarks but for now I've gone back to SQL Workbench to create and query databases till I learn more about how to use them practically.

Tre .
Tre .
1,574 Points

Ah, OK thanks. I just found the 'Database Foundations' course. Looks like they require students to install the server and workbench I'm starting with that course instead. Thanks for the info!

jonanthan, best thing would be to buy a hosting account on Godaddy or elsewhere which offers you database. Then you can use their bench to fill in the data manually or use a programming language to automate the process.

Sounds good.?

Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,252 Points

So it's as close to home as firing up XAMPP and using a service there, phpMyAdmin? :-)

Obayanju Damilare
Obayanju Damilare
3,383 Points

Hi, I wanted to ask if I need this topic to learn WordPress Theme Development. Thanks for your answer in advance:)

Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,252 Points

It can't hurt to have an idea on the basics but I don't think you'll be working with SQL too much in WordPress Development apart from migrating WordPress websites to domains or from local host.

Otherwise WordPress takes care of most of the interaction with SQL for you.

Tre .
Tre .
1,574 Points

I'm really interested in this course. Doesn't sound like playground is ideal for practicing. Is the workbench from mysql more than sufficient?

Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,252 Points

It's great for practicing if all you want to do is work with the given data.

Workbench shoiuld work for you otherwise if you want to practice building a database with a sql file.