Advice on Getting Started

[crawdad]

Hello all. I have some questions that are probably pretty stupid but Ill ask anyway

It is important that I start down a path of understanding mssql 2000. I wanted some advice from experts as to what the best way to start would be. Is there a great book out there? Can I run a version locally that I can play with? Also, when using the database, are the commands the same for mssql and mysql? I ask because I searched for tutorials and a lot more mysql tutorials popped up.

Obviously I dont expect to become an expert in a few weeks but if I could start down the path I would be happy. Maybe learn how to do simple maintenance and management functions.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[rmiao]

You can install sql2k eval edition (free to download from Microsoft) or developer edition (costs $50) on your machine to play with, and use books online as reference. Statements in sql server are different from those in MySql.

[crawdad]

Thanks rmiao!