If you're a beginner and want to learn practical SQL reporting skills in the shortest time possible, this is the course for you. The course's examples use free software, meaning you don't need to make any additional purchases.
To follow the course’s examples, you will need a Windows computer.
Unlike many other courses, this book works entirely with practical examples. You won't be slowed down by long explanations of database theory and instead will get started doing useful work immediately and will be able to begin creating reports from SQL databases after just a few lessons.
Almost any modern organization can benefit from a staff member who knows how to generate database reports using the SQL language, but SQL is a rare skill among most office staff. Part of the reason that few people have SQL skills is that most related courses try to teach every aspect of database theory, including database design and server administration.
This course is different. It focuses entirely on database reporting and won’t slow you down by trying to teach skills that you don’t need. This course also focuses on skills that will be useful on many different types of database rather than teaching obscure commands that will only work on a certain type of database.
Course Outline
- Lesson 1: Install SQL Server Express
- Lesson 2: Connect to SQL Server
- Lesson 3: Install the sample database
- Lesson 4: Explore a database
- Lesson 5: Write your first database query
- Lesson 6: Understand the SELECT statement and save a query
- Lesson 7: Sort with ORDER BY and export query results
- Lesson 8: Use the TOP and DISTINCT keywords
- Lesson 9: Filter results with WHERE
- Lesson 10: Use the LIKE keyword for inexact filters
- Lesson 11: Use simple mathematical operators and custom column names
- Lesson 12: Concatenate text and numbers
- Lesson 13: Understand dates and use the CONVERT function
- Lesson 14: Use logical operators and filter by date
- Lesson 15: Use aggregate functions and GROUP BY
- Lesson 16: Work with NULL values and the IN keyword
- Lesson 17: Use the HAVING statement to filter aggregate results
- Lesson 18: Use date functions
- Lesson 19: Work with text functions
- Lesson 20: Understand relationships
- Lesson 21: Use inner joins to extract data from multiple tables
- Lesson 22: Use outer joins
- Lesson 23: Use full joins
- Lesson 24: Use cross joins
- Lesson 25: Use the CASE function
- Lesson 26: Work with subqueries
- Lesson 27: Use IN and EXISTS
- Lesson 28: Use UNION to append the results of multiple queries together
- Lesson 29: Create a View
- Lesson 30: Analyze and optimize a query
