We’ve been listening to client requests for more help in getting started with QuerySmith, and in querying databases in general. With thanks to the folks over at TheMovieDB, we’ve created a sample Movies database (using Access) that you can use to get started with QuerySmith. We’ve got around 10,000 movies, 85,000 actors and support staff, movie studios, filming locations and more to help you learn how to query.

We’ve got a starter list of a dozen queries or so ranging in complexity that we’ll be building over time in order to illustrate how to perform certain tasks like joins, subtotals etc. We can also use this data to show off advanced concepts like cross-row calculations and things that are ordinarily a little harder in SQL.

We’ve randomized some of the data in the database to fill in gaps that were there, and keep in mind that’s it’s just a sample so it might be missing your favorite movies or favorite actors.

You can download the latest version on the download page.