Where can I find sample databases with common formatted data that I can use in multiple database engines? [closed]

Question

Does anybody know of any sample databases I could download, preferably in CSV or some similar easy to import format so that I could get more practice in working with different types of data sets?

I know that the Canadian Department of Environment has historical weather data that you can download. However, it's not in a common format I can import into any other database. Moreover, you can only run queries based on the included program, which is actually quite limited in what kind of data it can provide.

Does anybody know of any interesting data sets that are freely available in a common format that I could use with mySql, Sql Server, and other types of database engines?

Answer 1

The datawrangling blog posted a nice list a while back:

http://www.datawrangling.com/some-datasets-available-on-the-web

Includes financial, government data (labor, housing, etc.), and too many more to list here.

Answer 2

A lot of the data in Stack Overflow is licensed under the create commons. Every 3 months they release a data dump with all the questions, answers, comments, and votes.

Answer 3

For Microsoft SQL Server, there is the Northwind Sample DB and AdventureWorks.