Intermediate SQL

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
In our first lesson, we'll discuss the importance of Structured Query Language (SQL) and why it's used in conjunction with databases. We'll do a quick review of some of the basic concepts of the SQL language, including commonly used keywords, SQL data types, constraints, logical operators, and comparison operators. We'll also go over running queries in the SQL Design View and SQL View interfaces of Microsoft Access.

Lesson 2
In this lesson, you’ll discover how to query multiple tables using subqueries. You’ll learn about the different types of subqueries and how subqueries are processed. You'll find out how to create nested subqueries, subqueries linked by comparison operators, and subqueries that are linked through the following powerful keywords IN, NOT IN, EXISTS, ANY, SOME, ALL.

Lesson 3

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use unions to create queries that combine records from multiple queries, enabling you to either exclude or include duplicate records. You also will learn how to order the results from a union query, how to create an alias within a union query, and how to use a text string to display a value in a union query.

Lesson 4
In this lesson, you'll find out how to use advanced joins to query multiple tables simultaneously. You'll learn to create inner joins and outer joins. You will learn to create joins that contain aggregate functions and joins that are nested. You'll also find out how to create joins using SQL-92 and SQL-89 syntax.

Lesson 5
In this lesson, you'll learn how to use advanced update techniques to update data stored in your tables. You'll see how to use the UPDATE and SET keywords in an update statement and how to incorporate a WHERE clause within an update statement. We'll go over how to update single fields and multiple fields and how to update multiple records simultaneously, as well as how to update date fields. I'll also show you how to update columns with calculated fields, and also how to use an update statement to update multiple columns to NULL and how to insert data into NULL columns.

Lesson 6

In today's lesson, you'll find out how to use advanced insertion techniques to add to your tables. You'll learn how to create conditional and nonconditional insert statements and how to insert records that contain NULL values. We'll also explore how to insert records without the specification of column names and how to insert calculated values into a table. Finally, you'll see how to insert values from functions, how to insert a single record using a conditional insert statement, and how to insert multiple records using a conditional insert statement.

Lesson 7
In this lesson, you'll learn advanced filtering techniques that implement the LIKE operator. We'll begin with a review of the LIKE operator and then we'll discuss more advanced LIKE operator queries.  You'll learn how to use the percent (%) wildcard with the LIKE operator to compare a value to a string expression and to find a range of values. You'll learn how to use the exclamation mark (!) and the percent (%) sign wildcards with the LIKE operator to match character and digit patterns. You'll learn how to use the bracket ([]) wildcard with the LIKE operator to search for a range of characters and to search for a set of characters. You'll also learn how to use the LIKE operator to search for a combination of characters and digits.

Lesson 8
In this lesson, you'll see how to create, query, and modify temporary tables. We'll begin with a discussion on the importance of temporary tables and why we use them. Then we'll explore how to create and access temporary tables. You'll learn how to create a temporary table based on a standard table and how to create a temporary table based on a complex join. You'll see how to query a temporary table and how to find the second highest value in a column of a temporary table. You'll also see how to add a column and a datatype to a temporary table. Then we'll explore how to add a default value to a temporary table. Finally, we'll go over how to remove a column from a temporary table and how to delete a temporary table.

Lesson 9
In this lesson, you'll learn how to handle duplicate values stored in a table and how to limit the results of a result set. You’ll learn how to implement the DISTINCT keyword against a single field, how to implement the DISTINCT keyword against multiple fields, how to implement the DISTINCT keyword against a subquery, how to implement the DISTINCTROW keyword, how to implement the TOP keyword on a descending order field, how to implement the TOP keyword on an ascending order field, and how to implement the TOP PERCENT keywords.

Lesson 10
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use string functions to manipulate strings. You’ll learn how to use the LEFT () and RIGHT () functions to return characters of a string combined with concatenation, how to use the StrConv () function to convert values stored in columns, and how to convert string values typed directly into the StrConv () function. You’ll also learn how to use the LEN () function to count values stored in a column and how to count values typed directly into the LEN () function.

Lesson 11
In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the NOW () function to insert the date and time and how to insert a calculated date and time. You'll find out how to use the YEAR () function in a join query to extract the year from a date. And you'll learn how to use the YEAR (), MONTH (), MONTHNAME (), WEEKDAY (), and WEEKDAYNAME () functions to extract the year, month, name of the month, week, and name of the week from a date. You'll also learn how to use the FORMAT () function in a subquery to format dates.

Lesson 12
In this lesson, you'll learn how to create and implement parameter queries. You'll find out how to create a parameter query with one prompt and how to create a parameter query with two prompts. Then we'll go over how to create a parameter query that prompts the user for a date and how to create a parameter query that prompts the user for two dates. Finally, we'll discuss how to create a parameter query that queries two tables using a join and how to create a parameter query that implements the LIKE operator in a join query.