The first step in working with the Northwind Sample Database is to download the instnwnd.sql script and then load the Northwind sample database for SQL Server.
Download the script instnwnd.sql from the following GitHub repository.
or download it from LearningDub.com to create and load the Northwind sample database for SQL Server. Northwind Sample Azure SQL Database.
Once downloaded, run the downloaded instnwnd.sql script file to recreate the database on an instance of SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio.
1 Open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
2 Connect to the target SQL Server.
3 Open the script in a new query window.
4 Run the script (Click Execute).
Let’s take a minute to look at a diagram of the Northwind database and its eight most important tables. We will use the diagram below as a reference as we write code and queries throughout this website.
This diagram shows all 8 tables. In the diagram, lines between tables identify relationships between them. The lines with the infinity symbol (∞) at the ends of lines represent the one-side of a relationship (for example, one customer) and the many-side of a relationship. For example, one customer submits many orders.
Each category has a unique identifier, name, description, and picture. The picture is stored as a byte array in JPEG format.
Each product has a unique identifier, name, unit price, number of units in stock, and other columns.
Each product is associated with a category by storing the category’s unique identifier.
The relationship between Categories and Products is one-to-many, meaning each category can have zero, one, or more products.
Each product is supplied by a supplier company, indicated by storing the supplier’s unique identifier.
A quantity and unit price of a product is stored for each detail of an order.
Each order is made by a customer, taken by an employee, and shipped by a shipping company.
Each employee has a name, address, contact details, birth and hire dates, a reference to their manager (except for the boss whose ReportsTo field is null), and a photo stored as a byte array in JPEG format. The table has a one-to-many relationship to itself because one employee can manage many other employees.
Tip:
To open the Relationship Diagram SQL Server showing the six tables and the relationships between them, select Database Tools > Relationships.
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