Every SQL tutorial assumes your data is already "in a database." Nobody explains the step in between. This guide is that step. You'll get a data file, create your first real database on your own computer, load the file into it, and run your first query. It takes two desktop tools and zero server setup.
You do not need to bring your own data. Step 1 gives you a file to download, and every query in this guide runs against it.
If you are still weighing up which engine to put on your machine, the one-question version of that decision is in which SQL database should you install. Everyone else can start at step 1.
First: what are you actually building?
Say what you think a database is, in one sentence, before you read the next one. Whatever you pictured, the real answer for this guide is smaller and less intimidating than that.
