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You Can Take it With You » The Good Ol' Northwind and Pubs Sample Databases

The Good Ol' Northwind and Pubs Sample Databases

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The SQL Server AdventureWorks database does a fine job of demonstrating the features and capabilities of SQL Server 2005.
 
At times however, its far more complex then is necessary, especially when writing sample queries or testing out various features of the database APIs and synchronization tools.
 
I downloaded the Northwind and Pubs databases yesterday and attached them to my SQL Server 2005 database engine.  Ahhhh … the beauty of simplicity …. simple tables and data
 
I know many people have complained about the Northwind and Pubs databases but sometimes you just want a simple database structure with some data - there's plenty of complexity to be found elsewhere.
 
 
 
Posted Nov 30 2006, 02:37 PM by jim-wilson

Comments

dan wrote re: The Good Ol' Northwind and Pubs Sample Databases
on 10-24-2007 5:46 AM
Why use northwind?
What is it good for?
It's just a template database or is it more than that ?
Jim Wilson wrote re: The Good Ol' Northwind and Pubs Sample Databases
on 10-24-2007 6:10 AM
Dan;

Northwind is just a sample database.

The reason I like it is that it is of the appropriate complexity and size to allow one to see how a reasonably sophisticated database is laid out and I find it useful for testing out T-SQL and query behaviors without affecting a production database.

In my opinion, of the 3 SQL Server sample databases, Northwind is the "this one feels just right" sample database. The Pubs database is too simple for many experiments and I think the latest AdventureWorks database is more complex than many people will be using in production; especially AdventureWorks' heavy use of dividing tables into schemas within a database.

None of these issues are absolute and you may find that things fit your needs differently - I've just found Northwind to be a great tool for experimenting with and understanding SQL Server behavior.

-Jim

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