SQL Server Tutorial - Learn SQL Server from Scratch

SQL is the language that we can use to interact with those relational database management systems. We can use SQL to perform Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations as well as other administrative tasks like user management, security, etc. It is also used to define tables and structures.

This SQL Server tutorial will shed some light on your journey about SQL Server. So, as a beginner, these are the following topics you need to know:

Table of Content

• What is SQL Server?
• How to use SQL Server?
• Different Editions of SQL Server
• SQL Server Features
• Advantages of SQL Server
• Recommended Audience
• Prerequisites

Watch this Video on SQL Server tutorials for Beginners, which will help you to understand the concepts in depth.

What is SQL Server?

SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is a standardized language for interacting with Relational Database Management Systems. The Relational Database system is just a software application that we can use to create, maintain and do different things to our relational database.

• SQL Server is a collection of databases, it is an RDBMS product that was introduced by Microsoft in 1989.
• It is a backend tool and is used to develop backend applications for storing data.
• An SQL server is a platform-dependent product and it can be installed in windows OS only.
• SQL Server provides GUI facilities to the users to perform database operations like Create, Insert, Delete, Update, and Selection.

Key components of SQL Server are

Let’s discuss some of the key components of SQL Server

• Database Engine
• SQL Server Agent
• SQL Server Browser
• SQL Server VSS Writer
• SQL Server Full-text Speech
• SQL Server Integration Services
• SQL Server Reporting Services

How to use SQL Server?

To use SQL Server you need to follow the steps mentioned here in the following:

• You need to install the SQL server software. During installation, it will ask about the instance name where you need to create an object for the server.
  • Instance memory is also called reference memory. You can create 32767 databases under a single instance or reference memory of SQL Server.
  • So that’s why, you can say SQL Server is a collection of databases. These databases are a collection of different objects like tables, views, functions, triggers, etc.
• After the installation process is completed successfully, you will get an icon named SQL Server Management Studio(SSMS) tool.
  • It is a developing tool by which you can perform two types of operations: CUI and GUI-based operations used to perform some database operations such as the creation of a table, insertion, updation, deletion, or selection of a table.
• After clicking on SQL Server Management Studio(SSMS) tool, you will get a ‘Connect to Server’ window, where you have to fill in the server details like server type, and server name and you have to take care of the authentication, username, and password process, following which you can connect it with the server.

Different Editions of SQL Server

There are five editions of SQL Server and they are Standard edition, Web edition, Enterprise edition, Developer edition, and Express edition.

The following editions of SQL Server are listed in this tutorial:

• Standard edition

  • Contains the basic functionality required for optimal operation.
  • It includes general development, data manipulation, and database administration tools for efficient database operations with minimal resources.

• Enterprise edition

  • Support a wide range of data storage capabilities and include support for other databases and business applications.
  • It also includes some other similar advanced features like data compression, better security, and support for large database sizes.
  • Perfect for enterprises looking for scalability and performance.

• Web edition

  • It is a low-cost option and differs from the standard edition primarily in terms of larger buffer pool memory and external encoding capabilities.

• Developer edition

  • Designed for developers who need to build products running on top of SQL Server.
  • Has the ability to create stored procedures, functions, and views.

• Express edition

  • It is the most finite edition of SQL Server, it is for the use of individuals or small groups only.
  • The advanced features of the other four editions are not included.
  • The least functional, but the most accessible edition.

SQL Server Features

In this MS SQL Server tutorial, let’s discuss the features of SQL Server.

• Performance- SQL Server makes sure that the performance of your real-world application benchmark is set and your application using the SQL Server database is not turned down. So that’s why it can give excellent performance for your application. It is also one of the highest-performing database servers.
• Availability- SQL Server makes sure it provides high availability and disaster recovery.
  • With the enhanced SQL Server versions you can gain machine critical uptime, fast pay, easy setup, and load balancing of the readable secondaries. That’s why you can get unified solutions for high availability and disaster recovery on windows. You can also put up an asynchronous copy in the azure virtual machine for the hybrid high availabilities.
• Security- It provides less vulnerable databases, so you can make sure that your data is protected adequately and that it is less vulnerable to any major attacks. You can also make sure that you have many levels of security in compliance with the databases.

Advantages of SQL Server

Let’s discuss a few advantages of SQL Server:

• It increases data security.
• It can be used in multiple languages.
• It is an open-source platform.
• It has data recovery support.
• It’s easy to configure.
• It has an optimizable data storage capacity.

Recommended Audience for this SQL Server Tutorial

This SQL Server tutorial can be beneficial to anybody who wants to master or learn online. Software developers, and database administrators, can take free tutorials as a step for learning SQL servers.

Prerequisites for SQL Server Tutorial

There are no prerequisites for learning SQL server from this SQL Server tutorial for beginners. If you have a basic understanding of SQL and databases, then it will be beneficial for you.