Over the last couple of months I’ve been putting up some of my favorite learning resources. Recently my friend Robin Hunt (twitter | linkedin) at ThinkData Solutions asked me for some recommendations for some SQL Server learning resources for beginners. I thought I’d share that list here as well.
Books
Below are some of my favorite books on the subject. The links are to Kindle format, mostly because I’m a Kindle junkie, but you can also get the paperback version from a link on each page.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Step by Step – Any of the step by step books are good quality. There’s no 2012 version of this that I know of, but I’m sure one will be coming.
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 A Beginners Guide – This is a good resource if you are totally new to SQL Server. It’s very complete, covering all aspects of SQL Server Administration.
Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012 – This book is an easy read, so even beginners shouldn’t have any issues understanding it. It focuses mostly on new features in 2012, so it’s not quite a comprehensive book. But the Kindle version is FREE, so it makes a good resource for this list.
Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Administration – If you already have some good technical background you might want something one step above a beginner book, but is still easy for people new to SQL Server to understand, then this is a really good book to get. (Disclaimer, I’m a co-author of this book.)
Videos
SQL Share – This is a really unique site. It’s designed for the busy professional. All the videos here are very short, generally in the 10 minute range, and focus on one very specific topic. As I write this, the featured video is on working with foreign keys. It doesn’t have anything in the way of an overall course though, so I’d suggest it as a great resource to learn more about a topic you are interested in, or perhaps read about but don’t quite understand. (Disclaimer, I have some videos on this site.)
#sqlhelp
Another good resource is Twitter. Yes, Twitter. Do a search on the #sqlhelp hash tag and you’ll see all sorts of great questions being asked and answered. The SQL community does a great job of monitoring this hash tag and providing assistance.
