About this course
From Tables and SELECT queries to advanced SQL. SQL Server 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022.
This course is the foundation for the Microsoft Certificate 70-461: "Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012" and 70-761 "Querying Data with Transact-SQL".
Please note - these certificates are no longer being offered by Microsoft. However, the exam requirements allow you to have a good understanding of T-SQL.
Session 1
The basics presented are: how to install SQL Server, and how to create and drop tables.
We then try to create a more advanced table, but find that we need to know more about data types - so we go into some detail about data types and data functions, the foundation of T-SQL.
Session 2
We'll create tables which use these, and then INSERT some data into them. Then we'll write queries which will retrieve and summary this data, using SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING and ORDER BY.
We'll then JOIN these tables together to find where we are missing data and where we have inconsistent data. We'll then UPDATE and DELETE data from the tables.
Session 3
We'll now use that data to create views, which enable us to store these SELECT queries for future use, and triggers, which allow for code to be automatically run when INSERTing, DELETEing or UPDATEing data.
We'll look at the database that we developed in session 2, and see what is wrong with it. We'll add some constraints, such as UNIQUE, CHECK, PRIMARY KEY and FOREIGN KEY constraints, to stop erroneous data from being added some data.
Session 4
We will further encapsulate our routines by creating procedures, allowing us to EXECUTE parameterised commands with just one statement, and we'll add some error handling with TRY, CATCH and THROW.
We'll also combine datasets together, by looking at UNION and UNION ALL, INTERSECT and EXCEPT, CASE, ISNULL and Coalesce, and the mighty MERGE statement.
Session 5
We'll will now be creating aggregate queries. We'll be reviewing the ranking functions ROW_NUMBER, RANK, DENSE_RANK and NTILE. We'll look at the 8 analytic functions news to SQL Server 2012, such as LAG, LEAD, FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE.
We'll look at alternative ways of grouping and adding totals, using ROLLUP, CUBE, GROUPING SETS and GROUPING_ID. We'll also look at the geometry and geography data types, plotting locations on a grid, together with functions and aggregates.
Session 6
We'll will now be creating sub-queries and correlated subqueries, where the results of the subquery depend on the main query. We'll be looking at Common Table Expressions using the WITH statement, and we'll be using what we have learned to solve a common business problem.
We'll be looking at functions, including the three different types of User Defined Functions (UDF): scalar functions, inline table functions, and multi-statement table functions. We'll then look at synonyms and dynamic SQL, and the use of GUIDs. We'll also look at sequences.
We'll have a look at XML and, for SQL Server 2016 and later, we'll examine JSON and Temporal Tables.
Session 7
In this session we'll be looking at transactions, seeing how to explicitly start and end them, and finding out how they can block other users in the database. Then we'll see about how to indexes and their role in optimising queries.
We'll also see how we can use Dynamic Management Views to see how we can improve our use of indexes. We'll then look at how to write a cursor, and when to use this row-based operation, and the impact of using scalar UDFs.
No prior knowledge is required - I'll even show you how to install SQL Server on your computer for free!
There are regular quizzes to help you remember the information.
Once finished, you will know what how to manipulate numbers, strings and dates, and create database and tables, create tables, insert data and create analyses, and have an appreciation of how they can all be used in T-SQL.
