Advice needed

[splashout1]

Hi hopefully there will be one of the PH massive that can offer some advice. I currently am employed by a mailing house as their IT manager which has given me a great base understanding of many things such as data work. I enjoy the database side of things but do not do that much so what i am asking is advice on what i would need to learn in order to perhaps go down the database management and/or programing side of things. For example sql what is the best way to learn this is it a case of get a server and play with it? What other things would be good to have etc etc any advice greatfully recieved

[docevi1]

I find the best way to learn is to have something that needs to be completed and find out as you go along. For instance creating a website using a SQL backend would be ideal to show you the basics of the syntax & how joins work.

Failing that, getting a book and reading up on the different aspects doesn't hurt.

[anonymous-user]

Not wanting to put you off, but DBA involves a lot more than SQL queries, as does programming.

Depending on which route you want to go, as a DBA you're also going to have to learn about all of the user administration, index administration, database design, normalisation, clustering, backups, etc. etc. As a developer you'll most likely need SQL as a feather in the arsenal of other languages used to access the database.

It is also common to specialise as a DBA in one particular vendor's product, be that MS SQL, Oracle, IBM UDB, etc.