Lesson One: Learning SQL – Note to Self
Getting started on my SQL journey and setting up my development environment on my Mac.
Welcome to Lesson One of my SQL journey! In this lesson, I’ll be setting up my development environment on my Mac to learn SQL in a practical, hands-on way. Here’s my plan:
Code Editor
I’ll be using Visual Studio Code as my primary code editor. It’s lightweight and has excellent extensions that will help me work with SQL and Jupyter Notebooks.
Interactive Notebooks
I plan to install Jupyter Notebook along with the ipython-sql extension. This setup will allow me to write and execute SQL queries interactively right from my notebooks—perfect for experimenting with queries and seeing results immediately.
Database Platform
I’ll use Google’s database services for practice. Specifically, I might start with Google Cloud SQL to create a small SQL instance—or even explore BigQuery if I want to work with larger datasets. This will let me run real SQL queries against a cloud-hosted database.
Showcasing Projects
As I build my SQL projects, I’ll document them in Jupyter Notebooks and host the code on GitHub. I also plan to use Binder so that visitors can launch interactive sessions directly from my portfolio website.
My Workflow Will Include:
- Installing and setting up Visual Studio Code, with extensions for SQL and Jupyter.
- Installing Jupyter Notebook and the ipython-sql extension.
- Creating and connecting to a Google Cloud SQL instance.
- Practicing SQL queries interactively in Jupyter.
- Documenting my projects on GitHub and using Binder to make them interactive on my website.
Final Thoughts
This lesson is all about getting my tools and environment in order so that I can dive into SQL with confidence. I’m excited to see where this learning journey takes me, and I plan to share all my projects and insights on my website!