SQL
SQL (Structure Query Language) is a language used to manage data in a relational database management system (RDBMS). Popular RDBMS’s include names like: Postgresql, Oracle, MySQL, SQLite, MariaDB, and Microsoft SQL Server. SQL enables the user to write queries that quickly create, read, update, delete, and summarize data.
Standard SQL can be used with any of the mentioned RDBMS’s without change. With that being said, the way the RDBMS’s function can vary. For example, Postgresql has clients and servers, whereas SQLite is a single program. Additionally, most RDBMS’s have extensions that add supplementary, non-standard features, and each can have slight syntax differences.
Downloads
It is possible to download MySQL Community Server or download SQLite at no charge.
Documentation
We will use SQLite in The Data Mine. The SQLite webpage provides a lot of documentation. Here is a succinct description about SQLite.
If you like working on databases, it is likely that, at some point, you will also want to learn MySQL, which has many similarities to SQLite. The MySQL webpage provides extensive documentation.