I have a project that could benefit from using a database, but I have no experience with databases, don't have access to a server, and have relatively little experience working with things living server-side.
If I'm going to have to tackle a learning curve, I'd prefer to learn something with broad applicability (such as SQL) but would settle for learning something like Access if it is sufficiently powerful for the task I'm currently trying to tackle. Of course, I'd also rather not drop $150 on Access if it can be helped since I'm just tinkering.
I've downloaded LibreOffice Base as well as something called SQLiteBrowser, but I wanted to check first before I invest time learning those particular applications and their flavors of SQL whether those tools will be sufficient for what I want to do.
I want to be able to:
- import data from a CSV or from Excel
- run queries that equate to "select x where this is that and this contains that and any of these contain that"
- write(?) a new field which indicates those results which match a given query
Again, I'm willing to learn, but it would be nice not to have to learn a bunch of intermediate stuff about IT before I can focus on learning databases and, if necessary, the particulars of a given application.
Best Answer
First you will have to use query language. All the flavors of SQL use the almost same SQL query syntax. So you will first have to learn SQL query language. For eg. you can start with tutorial at www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp
Stanford University had offered public course on databases last Fall. They had nice tutorial on how to set up SQLite.
Once you start learning SQL you will need some tool using which you can build a database and run queries. SQLite is free software library which can be used to create databases and run queries. It can used as an independent tool i.e server setup is not required for using it. It also supports importing csv files.
Once you are familiar with SQL, you can use MySQL if you want to design some web-application or access to build desktop applications. I do not think Microsoft Access is at all necessary (as it is not free) if you just want to get started with.