Introduction to SQL

Students in the Introduction to SQL course learn the key concepts of Structured Query Language (SQL) and gain a solid working knowledge of this powerful and universal database programming language.  In this course, students learn about the basic structure of relational databases, how to read and write simple and complex SQL statements, and advanced data manipulation techniques.

First, students learn about the traditional database structure, the structure and history of the relational database, and what structured query language (SQL) is and how it relates to the relational database structure. Next, students discover how to use SQL to filter retrieved data and how to use SQL to sort and retrieve data from tables. Then they will learn how to reformat retrieved data with calculated fields and how to merge columns and create alternate names for columns. Students also learn how to gather significant statistics from data using aggregate functions and how to extract data from multiple tables simultaneously using joins and subqueries. In addition, students learn how to manipulate data using INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. Also covered is how to use SQL to create and maintain tables and learn how to create and use views to simplify complex queries, summarize data, and manipulate data stored in tables. Students discover how transaction processing, constraints, and indexes are implemented in SQL. And finally, discover how stored procedures, triggers, and cursors are implemented in SQL.

By the end of this course, students will have a solid working knowledge of structured query language. Graduates will feel confident in their ability to write SQL queries to create tables; retrieve data from single or multiple tables; delete, insert, and update data in a database; and gather significant statistics from data stored in a database.