Duration
14 hours (usually 2 days including breaks)
Overview
Delegates will gain an understanding of the basic principles of Structured Query Language as well as being able to do each of the following:
- Construct queries to extract and filter data from an SQL Server database
- Create summarised results
- Change, derive and format data to suit the required output
- Change data and maintain database components and definitions
This course is for anybody who needs information from a Microsoft SQL Server database. It is suitable for either system developers or people from other areas who need to use SQL to extract and analyse data.
Course Outline
Basics
- Selection of all columns/fields
- Selection of certain columns/fields
- Use of distinct/unique
- Selection of certain rows/records
- Selection of values in a range
- Selection of values matching a pattern mask
- Selection of values within a list
- Treatment of null values
- How to sort and order data
- Selection of calculated and derived values
- How to control column headings in query results
- How to send query results to external files
Joining Tables
- Principles of joining tables:
- Use of cartesian join
- Use of inner join
- Use of non-equi join
- Use of outer join
Joining Queries
- Union operator
- Intersect operator
- Except operator
Simple Functions
- Conversion functions
- Date functions
- Number functions
- Text functions
- Group/summary/aggregate functions
Sub-Queries
- Principles of sub-queries
- How to filter rows from main query
- Use of nested sub-query
- Use of multi-column sub-query
- Use of correlated sub-query
- Use of sub-query as an inline view and common table expression
- Use of sub-query as a column in main query
Case Statements
- Principles of case statements
- Use of case statement to derive column values
- Use of nested case statements
- Use of case statements to produce pivot tables
- Use of case statement with sub-queries
Data Manipulation
- How to insert values into a table
- How to copy values between tables
- How to update values
- How to delete records
- How to change data via views
- Use of transactions
- How to lock rows and tables
Data Definition
- Principles of a relational database and data normalisation
- Use of primary key and foreign key relationships and constraints
- How to create tables
- How to alter tables
- How to create views
- Use of synonyms
- How to remove tables and views