| The Tools |

Before we can get started, you need to get a database up and running - your SQL commands will be interpreted by this, and appropriate results generated.

Now, there are a number of database engines out there; you've probably heard of Oracle (for large, data-intensive Web applications) and Microsoft Access (for desktops and servers). Unfortunately, though both these come with powerful capabilities, neither of them is free - a fact which displeases many of those used to open-source software.

However, there is a database engine out there that is both free and effective, and will serve our purpose for this tutorial - it's called mySQL and you can download it from http://www.mysql.com/ (it's available for both UNIX and Windows platforms). Once you've downloaded and installed it (or had your network administrator do it for you), you're ready to begin your first foray into the world of SQL.

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