Learn SQL Server for Oracle, or Microsoft SQL Server?

[Ghost]

I thought it was time to branch out a bit, and maybe learn some new skills. I was thinking about taking a class or two on databases. A friend mentioned that there are two big players in that market. One is Oracle and one is Microsoft's SQL server.

Two of the local colleges don't offer anything specific for either of those databases. One community college offers SQL courses for Oracle.

Would it be worthwhile to pursue learning SQL for Oracle? Or is Microsoft the dominant player in the market, or are they on their way to becoming dominant?

I talked to a recruiter and they said that lately they see more jobs looking for Microsoft SQL Server experience....

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Nothinman]

SQL is SQL, there are database specific things but it wouldn't be bad idea to take a basic SQL class to find out if you can actually get into it. The main differeence would be the admin tools and the fact that Oracle is mainly run on unix machines where as MS SQL is stuck on Windows.

 

[Ghost]

Thanks for the response.

The same friend who mentioned the two different camps, mentioned, like you said, that SQL is SQL, but he thought the differences between the admin parts of the two databases was rather significant.

You don't find that to be true?

 

[Nothinman]

Sure it will be, but IMO it would be better to get an intro to SQL before deciding if you want to admin them too because as an admin you'll most likely have to do data manipulation via SQL too. Hell if you're not familiar with databases at all install PostgreSQL and poke around a bit, it's a free RDBMS. I doesn't have all the features of Oracle or MS SQL but it's still a really good database.

And like I said Oracle runs on every platform available where as SQL Server just runs on Windows, so if you're not familiar with unix at all you'll have problems in a lot of Oracle jobs. I know if I was willing to put up all that cash for Oracle I'd also shell out for either a nice Solaris or RedHat ES box to put it on and the nice thing about Oracle is that since it supports all those OSes you can move around pretty easily. One of our departments is moving a lot of databases from Oracle on Solaris and HP-UX to Oracle on Linux with a simple database export and import, if you used SQL Server I guarantee there'd be some data manipulation you'd have to do to get just the data to work on Oracle then if you had any stored procedures they'd probably need tweaked too.

 

[Ghost]

Here's the first course description.

This course provides an introduction to the Oracle relational database management system. Students will use SQL (Structured Query Language) to create and maintain database objects through DDL (Data Definition Language), and manipulate data through DML (Data Manipulation Language). Students will use SQL*Plus format commands to produce readable output displays and reports. This course and ISYS 1405 Introduction to Oracle PL/SQL help students prepare for the Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL certification exam

The second course is this one:

"This course continues the study of the Oracle relational database management system by providing an introduction to the Oracle PL (Procedural Language). Students will write PL with embedded SQL (Structured Query Language) to interact with an Oracle Server, create control structures, write explicit cursors, and handle exceptions. Students will use SQL*Plus format commands to produce readable output displays and reports. This course and ISYS 1400 Introduction to Oracle SQL help students prepare for the Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL certification exam."

I feel stuck. I can't find any courses for Microsoft's SQL Server. I found these courses for Oracle SQL, but I have no Unix experience.

Do you think it would be useful to take the course anyway? We're only talking $200.00 bucks....it's at a community college. I'm just trying to avoid spending time and money in this course, if my lack of Unix experience will make it very hard for me to get a handle on Oracle...

A little confused, sorry.

 

[bunker]

Oracle isn't only run on Unix machines. It is also frequently run on Windows boxes as well. If your main concern is working with Unix, contact the college/instructor and find out what OS they are using.

 

[Nothinman]

It doesn't look like the course will touch any of the unix part of it so you'll probably be using Windows boxes with the Oracle client on them, if the database is already setup on the server you probably won't have to do much with the server's OS. If it doesn't say it recommends or requires any unix experience it probably doesn't, but IMO in the real world you will need unix experience to do the full job. I'm not a DBA (actually I know very little about databases) but I've had to work with them on different problems and inevitably we always end up alteast looking at different settings and things in the OS and since our Oracle instances are almost all on unix some basic unix knowledge is required.

 

[Kinesis]

Oracle : PL/SQL

MS SQL Server : T-SQL

Similar languages, but different when it comes down to Temp tables, triggers, and events.

I went the route of T-SQL (Aced that Course) and the took PL/SQL (Kick some butt, but not a walk in the park). But as stated earlier, SQL is essentially SQL. What you need is the foundation, and a good one at that, and you can use any form of SQL.

Good luck!

 

[Ghost]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm giving the class some serious thought.