I've just installed sql server 2005 developer.  I haven't a clue what I'm doing.  I'm currently doing a home study course (yes I now know that was a bad move!) which is just baffling the hell out of me with too much information/unclear use of terminology etc and figured I'd get myself a copy of the software and have a tinker to get my head around it in the hope that would make my studying a little clearer.  However having just installed the software I now don't have a clue where to start.  I want to create a few simple tables, with primary and foreign keys etc etc but the install put so much stuff on my laptop I don't even know what to open to start doing this can someone please point me in the right direction before I beat myself up anymore for spending so much money on this home study course


Thank you!!

The main program you want to use is SQL Server Management Studio. With this you can run SQL etc. I would have a look at SQL Server Books Online and play with the Northwind sample database,

HTH,

 

James

Thanks I'll give it a go!


Jo

If you can get hold of Microsoft Access, you can use this as a nice simple way of manipulating data, and creating tables, and so on in SQL Server. For just getting started and gaining confidence it is really quite neat. As James says, you'll soon want more power, and at that point you'll want to move to SSMS. Surprisingly, quite a few of the cute features of SSMS were originally written for Access, so you'll have a good start.

I started with a home study course as well and found it quite informative and rewarding. The books usually start with some administration, but if you prefer to start with tables and databases. The index should point out exactly where database and table creation are in the text and there should be several examples.