Welcome to the Tacnode Tutorial. The following few chapters are intended to give a simple introduction to Tacnode, relational database concepts, and the SQL language to those who are new to any one of these aspects. We only assume some general knowledge about how to use computers. No particular Unix or programming experience is required. This part is mainly intended to give you some hands-on experience with important aspects of the Tacnode system. It makes no attempt to be a complete or thorough treatment of the topics it covers.

After you have worked through this tutorial you might want to move on to reading Part II to gain a more formal knowledge of the SQL language for information about developing applications for Tacnode. Those who set up and manage their own server should also read Part III.

Table of Contents

The SQL Language

 Introduction

 Concepts

 Creating a New Table

 Populating a Table With Rows

 Querying a Table

 Joins Between Tables

 Aggregate Functions

 Updates

 Deletions

Advanced Features

 Introduction

 Views

 Foreign Keys

 Transactions

 Window Functions

 Conclusion