Although I have extensive experience with SQL (you can't really work in PB without learning at least a little bit of SQL) it is mostly on the programmer side of things. Stored Procedures, Triggers and a ton of SQL code. My experience is lacking on the administration side of things.

A word about SQL... it stands for S tructured Q uery L angage which is a standard language that works accross many database vendors. It isn't Microsoft SQL Server. There is a lot of confusion about that. So now it's clear and you have a hand up on almost all recruiters that have been abliterating that term for decades.

95% of my experience is in SQL and like I said SQL works accross many database vendors, it is a standard. There are some differences amoung database vendors when it comes to procedure syntax but SQL is SQL.

Oracle who produces the i series databases as well as MySQL was the first database vendor on the seen way back when the PC was first comming in to it's own. Before that was VAX and main frames. Currently Oracle's big plus is the package. Like Java, they group code (procedures, triggers, etc) in packages. That is an advantage over all the other vendors. However, of all the databases I've coded, MySQL is my favorite. It has it's limitations like you can used function calls in table definitions (bummer) but it's simple, lite, easy to code, can be an enterprise and it's free.

Sybase produces Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) and Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA) (also called SQL Anywhere). ASE is the fastest database on the market and ASA was the most portable (before MySQL came along). Since Sybase wrote the original MSSQL Server (up to version 4) there are a number of similarities between the two. In fact, Sybase use to call thier product Sybase SQL Server System x and changed the name to ASA to avoid confusion. Whenever SQL Server was mentioned everyone immediately thought Microsoft. ASA on the other hand wasn't written by Sybase. It's the old Watcom database that has been around almost as long as Oracle. So ASE and ASA are two completely different things. I have extensive experience in both. I don't care a lot for them anymore but that's not because of the database architecture, it's because of the company. I deal with them on the PowerBuilder side of things. That's enough for me.

Microsoft produces MSSQL Server. If you need a decent database with a simple setup, MSSQL Server is your baby. They have all the GUI's, and simplistic approaches to everything. I use MSSQL Server 2000 as a source db on one of my windows boxes.. But there are some draw backs to MSSQL Server. It don't work on Linux and it isn't cheap. In fact it isn't even reasonable. Also coding stored procs on MSSQL Server is kinda kludge.

So that is a brief synopsis of my SQL career. I have written a lot of code in SQL accross many vendors, but like I said I am more on the programmer side of things rather than administrative side.