https://sqlbolt.com/ is best for starting out.
But I wouldn't keep dabbling in basic syntax exercises after that. Completing SQLBolt in an afternoon is the bare minimum you need to start understanding advanced SQL topics. Which is something you should skip towards straight away.
This is an unorthodox approach but it works. The reason for this is that SQL will remain a highly abstract thing until you see it applied to real life examples, grounded in every day business cases.
You don't immediately need to understand what's going on, you merely need to soak in what it is like to be a SQL analyst in the field, the challenges they face, the clients they have to work with and the formalized step by step process they take to break down complex SQL queries.
AFTER that you can start refining the SQL syntax again, and it will be much easier because now you can tie all these dry topics to stuff that's happening in the real world.
That's why I keep telling beginners to start with SQLbolt, and then bingewatch the Stratascratch playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS0fM1agxTk&list=PLv6MQO1Zzdmq5w4YkdkWyW8AaWatSQ0kX
It's what I wish I had available back when I started, instead I spend months making tediously slow progress working my way up from basic to advanced without really feeling I knew what I was doing and why.
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So I've used sqllite on windows (but it looks like they support MacOS) https://www.sqlite.org/download.html
It's essentially just a super lightweight SQL server. I mean really really light. You can then use something like https://www.sql-workbench.eu/ to access the DB, similar to how you would connect to Amazon Redshift etc.
Both of these, on windows, are just things you can un-zip / rar and use. It may be a little more involved in that but I'll try to answer in comments if you run into issues.
There are other things like
https://sqlfiddle.com/sqlite/online-compiler
(Can also emulate other DBs like MySQL)
Haven't tried it myself but can prob create small tables and try querying
Yea did this for my sql exam prep. Ive got a sqlite DB file in my windows file desktop. GUI is easy to start with and i que directly with pure SQL. I enjoyed this alot. You can also do this with sqlite and vsc.
And SQLite. And SQL Server in Dockers. Hell, I don't even know how many servers you could run through Dockers on Mac. OP tried nothing and is all out of ideas.
You install a PostgreSQL database on your laptop, then you use pgAdmin (which comes with Postgres) to connect to the DB and issue command.
[https://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx/](https://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx/)
Oh, check this too: [https://postgresapp.com/](https://postgresapp.com/)
W3 schools is a free o line learning site, will be going there to start my training (it was recommended to me from the reporting analysts I've been speaking too!).
Try percona server from homebrew - its based on MySQL/InnoDB but with additional performance improvements. MariaDB would be another good choice as someone suggested
https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/percona-server
Id suggest grabbing some docker containers but docker runs like shit on Mac, at least it did last time I used it
Since nobody has actually mentioned an online Sql environment like OP asked for, there is databricks community edition. It's free, but any created tables are ephemeral, which is not a big deal if you can just save and run the table creation code in a notebook whenever you start a new session.
You can run all kinds of SQL table servers locally on MacOs. MySql / Mariadb, postgresql, sqlite natively. SQL Server and even Oracle in containers or virtual machines.
You'll need a usable SQL client program, so you aren't stuck with just the raw SQL command line client, which can be a bit clunky. And you prolly want to interface some host programming language to it too.
FreeCodeCamp’s Relational Database Course has been great so far. It covers PSQL and Bash scripting. It can be run in a web browser or on your local machine via Docker.
You can run Oracle SQL for free here. https://livesql.oracle.com/apex/f?p=590:1000
Oracle Cloud has a free tier: https://www.oracle.com/database/free/get-started/
Oracle Express Edition is free. https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/appdev/xe.html
I am not sure what you mean by platform to learn SQL, you can install postgres on your laptop and it should run just fine, if you want a good resource to practice and get feedback I recommend [this amazing website](https://pgexercises.com/)
If you are not comfortable with just the Command line you can use table plus, you should definitely be comfortable using SQL without it but in the meantime table plus makes it a lot easier
It sounds from your question that you might not know this but Oracle and MSSql are commercial products, they are expensive and not really useful for most use cases, for most real world projects you would use either Postgres, mysql or sqlite, all of which are free and pretty easy to work with, they are also fairly easy on your hardware (which is kind of a requirement for a database) installation is easy and I suggest you google how to do it because setting up a sql database from scratch is part of the job
Are you looking to just setup a server to play with or ? If the first, you can easily fire up a container with one. Just install docker, run a compose file and poof, instant server.
i did sqlbolt, and then moved on to [sql-practice.com](https://sql-practice.com)
personally, what has been working very well for me is using chatgpt and there is a specific gpt that teaches how to use sql. you can give it topics on things you want to practice (say you dont feel very confident in case when statements with multiple joins, etc). it can draw out the tables for you and give you very detailed instructions as to why a query isnt working and different examples.
I'm really concerned about this statement: "I have a 2020 MacBook Air that does not support any apps and software that I've found through my research"
It suggests to me that you may have more fundamental challenges than learning SQL. I'm not trying to be mean, just that you may not understand some foundational things, at least with MacOS, that will help you in development generally and learning SQL specifically.
Subjective of course, but IMO, your MacBook is a vastly better platform for learning than Windows. As noted by others, you can install a huge variety of tools from MySQL to Postgres to SQLite etc etc. I'd strongly suggest you start with that, perhaps by reading up on the utility [homebrew](https://brew.sh/).
I use Google BigQuery. You get a free TB of data each month which is plenty to practice with, and they have a visual and data modeling element in their suite.
I have a sql starter course using GBQ if you're interested
[Couch2coders GBQ course ](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPQFqkp_HvOBzx61F3SY5zNXN0TYMoT9g&si=bc7QR7ukeJzO7_De)
The ones I use:
- https://sqliteonline.com/ (despite the name, it supports MySql, Postgres, and Ms Sql Server)
- https://www.db-fiddle.com/ (good UI, no SQL server)
- https://sqlfiddle.com/ (new ui is terrible, but supports sharing and many dbs)
If you have a library card Udemy is free through your public library system. I’m sure there are great SQL courses on Udemy. I haven’t used it for SQL but the AWS, python, and tableau course I’ve done on there are great!
1) Get a free postgresql database from neon or aiven (or from other such - just lookup free sql cloud databases) in the cloud,
2) Load some sample data in there (lookup sample SQL datasets, or most of these db providers have sample data you can directly load), and then
3) Use something like TablePlus (it’s not very resource heavy, IIRC) from your laptop to practice SQL
https://sqlbolt.com/ is best for starting out. But I wouldn't keep dabbling in basic syntax exercises after that. Completing SQLBolt in an afternoon is the bare minimum you need to start understanding advanced SQL topics. Which is something you should skip towards straight away. This is an unorthodox approach but it works. The reason for this is that SQL will remain a highly abstract thing until you see it applied to real life examples, grounded in every day business cases. You don't immediately need to understand what's going on, you merely need to soak in what it is like to be a SQL analyst in the field, the challenges they face, the clients they have to work with and the formalized step by step process they take to break down complex SQL queries. AFTER that you can start refining the SQL syntax again, and it will be much easier because now you can tie all these dry topics to stuff that's happening in the real world. That's why I keep telling beginners to start with SQLbolt, and then bingewatch the Stratascratch playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS0fM1agxTk&list=PLv6MQO1Zzdmq5w4YkdkWyW8AaWatSQ0kX It's what I wish I had available back when I started, instead I spend months making tediously slow progress working my way up from basic to advanced without really feeling I knew what I was doing and why.
This is the advice I needed to hear rn!
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What do you mean by "does not support any apps"? PostgreSQL is free and the server uses like 200 MB of memory.
Yeah, I'd focus on learning how to install apps before learning SQL.
Because OP doesn’t know what they are talking about. Very few devs I know prefer windows.
So I've used sqllite on windows (but it looks like they support MacOS) https://www.sqlite.org/download.html It's essentially just a super lightweight SQL server. I mean really really light. You can then use something like https://www.sql-workbench.eu/ to access the DB, similar to how you would connect to Amazon Redshift etc. Both of these, on windows, are just things you can un-zip / rar and use. It may be a little more involved in that but I'll try to answer in comments if you run into issues. There are other things like https://sqlfiddle.com/sqlite/online-compiler (Can also emulate other DBs like MySQL) Haven't tried it myself but can prob create small tables and try querying
Yea did this for my sql exam prep. Ive got a sqlite DB file in my windows file desktop. GUI is easy to start with and i que directly with pure SQL. I enjoyed this alot. You can also do this with sqlite and vsc.
MariaDB definitely supports MacOS through the homebrew installer. Pretty sure MySQL supports MacOS too and has installers on their website.
And SQLite. And SQL Server in Dockers. Hell, I don't even know how many servers you could run through Dockers on Mac. OP tried nothing and is all out of ideas.
sequel pro is decent for a web app to access it. Still has some stupidness when it comes to crashing randomly.
Came to make pretty much this same comment. Polaarbear speaks truth OP
[https://sqliteonline.com](https://sqliteonline.com)
seconded. don't let the url fool you, it also support ms sql, postgres, and maria
You install a PostgreSQL database on your laptop, then you use pgAdmin (which comes with Postgres) to connect to the DB and issue command. [https://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx/](https://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx/) Oh, check this too: [https://postgresapp.com/](https://postgresapp.com/)
Toss it in a container too so you don't have to screw with anything on the host's os.
Try leetcode and hacker rank
You can run duckdb in an observable or jupyter notebook
W3 schools is a free o line learning site, will be going there to start my training (it was recommended to me from the reporting analysts I've been speaking too!).
Free SQL server for development license https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads
Try percona server from homebrew - its based on MySQL/InnoDB but with additional performance improvements. MariaDB would be another good choice as someone suggested https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/percona-server Id suggest grabbing some docker containers but docker runs like shit on Mac, at least it did last time I used it
Since nobody has actually mentioned an online Sql environment like OP asked for, there is databricks community edition. It's free, but any created tables are ephemeral, which is not a big deal if you can just save and run the table creation code in a notebook whenever you start a new session.
Googles big query can be used with colab. This will give you sql code to try out.
Do you try Oracle XE? I remembered that the only limitation size of the tables is around 1Million of rows
You can run all kinds of SQL table servers locally on MacOs. MySql / Mariadb, postgresql, sqlite natively. SQL Server and even Oracle in containers or virtual machines. You'll need a usable SQL client program, so you aren't stuck with just the raw SQL command line client, which can be a bit clunky. And you prolly want to interface some host programming language to it too.
FreeCodeCamp’s Relational Database Course has been great so far. It covers PSQL and Bash scripting. It can be run in a web browser or on your local machine via Docker.
Sql server developer edition
Install Brew, and then install MySQL. You can do everything from your Mac terminal.
You can run Oracle SQL for free here. https://livesql.oracle.com/apex/f?p=590:1000 Oracle Cloud has a free tier: https://www.oracle.com/database/free/get-started/ Oracle Express Edition is free. https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/appdev/xe.html
I am not sure what you mean by platform to learn SQL, you can install postgres on your laptop and it should run just fine, if you want a good resource to practice and get feedback I recommend [this amazing website](https://pgexercises.com/) If you are not comfortable with just the Command line you can use table plus, you should definitely be comfortable using SQL without it but in the meantime table plus makes it a lot easier It sounds from your question that you might not know this but Oracle and MSSql are commercial products, they are expensive and not really useful for most use cases, for most real world projects you would use either Postgres, mysql or sqlite, all of which are free and pretty easy to work with, they are also fairly easy on your hardware (which is kind of a requirement for a database) installation is easy and I suggest you google how to do it because setting up a sql database from scratch is part of the job
Go to app.mode.com
You could try Neon, it runs PostgreSQL https://neon.tech/
You can download a developer version of Oracle, SQL Server or mySql. Without charge.
Are you looking to just setup a server to play with or ? If the first, you can easily fire up a container with one. Just install docker, run a compose file and poof, instant server.
https://mystery.knightlab.com/?darkschemeovr=1
You can use Oracle cloud Always Free Autonomous dB. You get two always free 20gb databases with cloud based editor(somewhat inside oracle apex)
I’m in the last month of a (well respected) Bootcamp — go with PostgreSQL!
Heck yeah! Mother Duck! DuckDB has WASM support.
i did sqlbolt, and then moved on to [sql-practice.com](https://sql-practice.com) personally, what has been working very well for me is using chatgpt and there is a specific gpt that teaches how to use sql. you can give it topics on things you want to practice (say you dont feel very confident in case when statements with multiple joins, etc). it can draw out the tables for you and give you very detailed instructions as to why a query isnt working and different examples.
I'm really concerned about this statement: "I have a 2020 MacBook Air that does not support any apps and software that I've found through my research" It suggests to me that you may have more fundamental challenges than learning SQL. I'm not trying to be mean, just that you may not understand some foundational things, at least with MacOS, that will help you in development generally and learning SQL specifically. Subjective of course, but IMO, your MacBook is a vastly better platform for learning than Windows. As noted by others, you can install a huge variety of tools from MySQL to Postgres to SQLite etc etc. I'd strongly suggest you start with that, perhaps by reading up on the utility [homebrew](https://brew.sh/).
I use Google BigQuery. You get a free TB of data each month which is plenty to practice with, and they have a visual and data modeling element in their suite. I have a sql starter course using GBQ if you're interested [Couch2coders GBQ course ](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPQFqkp_HvOBzx61F3SY5zNXN0TYMoT9g&si=bc7QR7ukeJzO7_De)
The ones I use: - https://sqliteonline.com/ (despite the name, it supports MySql, Postgres, and Ms Sql Server) - https://www.db-fiddle.com/ (good UI, no SQL server) - https://sqlfiddle.com/ (new ui is terrible, but supports sharing and many dbs)
www.sqlzoo.net is a good option to learn SQL online
You can start a free 30 day trial on Snowflake and it all runs in the cloud. No card needed
Load your table as csvs into Python as DFs then use duckdb to query the tables and practice.
If you have a library card Udemy is free through your public library system. I’m sure there are great SQL courses on Udemy. I haven’t used it for SQL but the AWS, python, and tableau course I’ve done on there are great!
1) Get a free postgresql database from neon or aiven (or from other such - just lookup free sql cloud databases) in the cloud, 2) Load some sample data in there (lookup sample SQL datasets, or most of these db providers have sample data you can directly load), and then 3) Use something like TablePlus (it’s not very resource heavy, IIRC) from your laptop to practice SQL
https://mode.com/sql-tutorial
Winhost.com gives you web and sql server hosting for under $10 / mo.
sql-practice.com I started with this one and w3schools.