Select Star SQL
This is the repository for selectstarsql.com. It is an interactive book that teaches SQL by conveying a mental model for writing queries.
Development
The structure of the code is pretty standard for a Jekyll-built site. See Jekyll Directory Structure.
All the pages are stored as markdown(.md) files in the top-level directory. Jekyll takes these markdown files and converts them into html files in /_site
. During the conversion, it does all sorts of cool energy-saving things like embedding them in templates with standardized header and footer elements. These templates are stored in /_layouts
.
The main technical complexity lies in the interactive sql exercises. These are implemented as a custom html tag in /scripts/main.js
. Firefox doesn't support custom html elements by default, so we pulled in the custom-elements.min.js
library from unpkg. (See _layouts/default.html
.)
To contribute, either email me directly at zichongkao@gmail.com, or submit a pull request by following these steps:
- Install Jekyll
- Fork this repo (button on the top right)
- Clone your forked repo
git clone https://github.com/MYUSERNAME/selectstarsql/
- Make your changes
- Run
jekyll serve
and check your changes on your browser at your localhost address. This will probably be http://127.0.0.1. - Commit your changes, and push it to your forked repo
- Click "Create Pull-request" when looking at your forked repo on Github.
Licensing
The prose of the book is licensed by Zi Chong Kao under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 License which allows sharing and adapting under the same license and with attribution. The code and datasets are released into the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 License.
Todo
- Complete hiatus tutorial
- Clarify double quotes for SQLite
- Improve CASE WHEN explanation