I am trying to practice writing simple SQL queries but I can’t connect to my school account on Microsoft SQL Server Studio because they delete your database once you finish the class. I downloaded MySQL but I wasn’t sure if I could practice queries on it or not. Any answers would be great, thanks!
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Answer
The syntax and built-in functions are not identical, but they are similar for many things. For example, SQL TOP, LIMIT, or ROWNUM clauses is a case where they diverge.
Personally, I’d recommend taking a look at what w3schools.com has for SQL (and MySQL) resources. They have a ton of info to get you going, tutorials, references, etc. They also have “Try It Yourself” modules where you can use a playground database they provide to practice executing in the language your looking at material for. In cases where the SQL Server and MySQL (and other languages) syntax differs, w3schools shows examples of both (all that they support) like in the example I mentioned at the top.
Snippet from the top of their SQL tutorial home page:
“Our SQL tutorial will teach you how to use SQL in: MySQL, SQL Server, MS Access, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Postgres, and other database systems.”