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Courses >
Database Management & Programming > Introduction to SQL
Syllabus:
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 the lesson is released, but you must
complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
A new
section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each
month. 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.
| Week One |
| Wednesday - Lesson 01 |
In
our first lesson, we'll explore the basic structure and history of
relational databases. Then, you'll understand what SQL is and how it is
used with a relational database.
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| Friday - Lesson 02 |
In
this lesson, you'll learn how to use SQL to sort and retrieve data from
tables. We'll talk about important query terms that enable you to
communicate with your database, as well as syntax rules that will
enable you to create clear and understandable queries while avoiding
system generated errors.
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| Week Two |
| Wednesday - Lesson 03 |
In
this lesson, you'll learn how to use SQL to filter retrieved data.
You'll practice sorting retrieved data using the ORDER BY clause.
You'll be able to sort single and multiple columns, and you'll know how
to specify sort directions such as ascending and descending order.
You'll also learn additional query terms that will help you customize
your SQL queries.
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| Friday - Lesson 04 |
Today,
you'll learn how to reformat retrieved data with calculated fields and
functions. You'll also learn how to create alternate names for columns
and you'll discover the secret behind merging columns with the
concatenation symbol.
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| Week Three |
| Wednesday - Lesson 05 |
In
this lesson, we'll discuss gathering significant statistics from data
using aggregate functions. You'll also learn how to use the GROUP BY
clause in conjunction with an aggregate function to gather important
statistics from a table. Then you'll find out how to use the HAVING
clause in conjunction with an aggregate function to filter groups of
data from a table.
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| Friday - Lesson 06 |
Today's
lesson is all about subqueries. You'll learn how to extract data from
multiple tables simultaneously, how to use calculated fields in
subqueries, how to use the DATEPART () function in subqueries, and how
to use aggregate functions in subqueries. Then we'll talk about
qualification—a technique used to combine a table name with a column
name so there's no question about which table the column name refers to.
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| Week Four |
| Wednesday - Lesson 07 |
In
this lesson, you'll learn how to use joins to gather information from
two or more tables simultaneously. You'll learn how to use the inner
join, self-join, natural join, and the outer join. Then you'll become
familiar with the term Cartesian product.
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| Friday - Lesson 08 |
In
today's lesson, you'll discover how to manipulate data using the
INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. You'll learn how to insert
partial and complete rows into a table, and how to update information
already stored in a table. You find out how to transfer data to a new
table, how to transfer data to an existing table, and how to delete
rows from a table.
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| Week Five |
| Wednesday - Lesson 09 |
Today,
you'll find out how SQL can be used to create and maintain tables.
You'll learn how to use the CREATE TABLE keywords to create a table,
then we'll discuss how to use the ALTER TABLE, DROP TABLE, ADD COLUMN,
and DROP COLUMN keywords to manipulate the tables themselves. You'll
also find out how to define a primary key, data type, and field size.
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| Friday - Lesson 10 |
In
this lesson, you'll learn how and why views are used in SQL. You'll
learn how to create and use views to simplify complex queries,
summarize data, and manipulate data stored in tables. I'll also teach
you how to update and delete a view.
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| Week Six |
| Wednesday - Lesson 11 |
Today,
you'll learn how transaction processing, constraints, and indexes are
implemented in SQL. You'll work through an example that demonstrates
how a transaction is created, how constraints are used in the creation
of a table, and how indexes are used to improve the performance of a
database by optimizing the speed at which queries are processed.
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| Friday - Lesson 12 |
In
our last lesson, you'll find out how stored procedures, triggers, and
cursors are implemented in SQL. You'll see how stored procedures are
created and executed, as well as how triggers work. You'll also see how
cursors are declared in SQL.
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This
course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide
you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your
questions. The instructor for this course will be Cecelia Allison.
 Cecelia
Allison is an experienced software tester and technical support
specialist with many years of hands-on experience using and teaching
SQL. She is also a freelance Web master, published author, and a
university instructor. Mrs. Allison holds a Bachelor of Science in
Finance and a Master of Science in Computer Information Systems.
Requirements:
Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins
(two free and simple downloads you obtain at
http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and
Get Adobe Reader). any type of computer with a Windows Operating
System, and any desktop (standalone, not required to run over a
server) Database Management System (DBMS) that supports the execution
of Structured Query Language (SQL). Examples include Microsoft Access,
SQL Server Personal Edition, SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE), SQL
Server Evaluation Edition and Developer Edition, Oracle Personal
Edition. Or any client/server (required to run over a server)
database management system that is connected to a server and supports
the execution of Structured Query Language. Examples include MySQL,
Sybase, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Server Enterprise Edition
and Standard Edition.
Student Reviews:
"Access to supplementary material was excellent and futher enhanced the lesson."
"Although this was my first online course and my first
exposure to SQL, I found both the content and structure of the course
easy to understand and follow. I was most impressed by the whole
approach taken with this form of off campus learning. The quizzes and
assignments are an excellent way of reinforcing the lessons and the
discussion area a great tool for interaction with the instructor and
fellow students without having to be on campus. I would certainly
recommend this form of learning to others and consider other online
courses in the future. Keep up the great work!"
"Cecelia did a fine job in presenting the material and
backing it up with examples. The assignments and questions on the
quizzes were also appropriate. Enjoyed it!"
"Cecelia is an excellent instructor, and very interactive with students. I would highly recommend this course to others."
"Cecilia made potentially difficult material very easy to understand. I would definitely take another course from her!"
"Cecilia's teaching style really helped me understand SQL
better from a background manner. I will continue to use this course
material as a refernce for spotting errors and fixing problems that may
arise. Thank you for offering this course!"
"Cecilia was a great instructor. I learned quite a bit. This
course met, and even exceeded my expectations. Thank you and keep up
the good work!"
"Clear, concise, specific, and to the point. This is the way
a class should be taught. This class was able to fill in the gaps and
spark ideas to be more productive with datbase queries."
"Enjoyed the writing style of the instructor. Course covered what I wanted to learn."
"Excellent course, I now feel more comfortable with SQL and
will be able to use a lot of the course material for the databases that
I have to manage."
"Great course - loads of info - I loved the links, they were very useful."
"I enjoyed this class the most of all the online courses like this I have taken."
"I have taken many of your online courses and this was by
far the best one ever. The material was concise, complete, easy to
understand, and well-structured. The foundations for most of the
concepts were explained with practical examples and the homework was
not overwhelming. I was never left wondering how to get from point A to
point B because the material was so well presented. A big thank you to
the instructor!"
"I just wanted to take a second to compliment Cecelia on her
instruction, and diligence. I got behind and have been playing catch
up, and by gosh Cecelia answered every last second question I popped
out there and did a wonderful job. I will recommend any class taught by
Cecelia Allison any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. Way to go,
Cecelia!"
"I learned well beyond what I expected through this course."
"Instructor Cecelia was very helpful and prompt with replies in discussion area."
"I really enjoyed Cecelia's writing style, and would like to
comment on her excellent use of English and attention to
detail/proofreading. Too many programmers, including instructors, don't
seem to care how their messages are written as long as someone,
somewhere can decipher the meaning. When an instructor cares enough to
write well, I respect his/her knowledge and authority on the subject. I
feel that this is very important when learning, as it is the
instructor's job to make material more efficient to absorb (otherwise,
we wouldn't need instructors, would we?). Thanks, Cecelia!"
"I really enjoyed this class because I learned a lot. I am
very happy that I decided to take all these classes because they really
helped me to find the job that I wanted. Before, I was an adminstrative
Technician and now I am a System Support Specialist. In the future, I
want to be a database administrator and I think these classes will help
me obtain whatever I want. Thank you so much for your work."
"I really enjoyed this course and it has already helped me
in my job. I especially liked the fact that I could sign on and study
any time I wanted. Thank you."
"I really enjoyed this online class. I was a little leery of
this type of class using the internet, but it was great. Thank you so
much. I got a lot from your lessons."
"I really liked the format of this course. It is a great
introduction to the principles of SQL and I feel ready to take on using
the language in my work. Thanks!"
"I really wanted to thank Ms. Allison for conducting this
course. I have tried to take an SQL course before but had to quit as
the instructor taught so far above my head I could not understand the
subject matter. This course was broken down into small bites and the
quizzes and assignments helped to bring the concept home! I have
enjoyed this course and would consider taking another course like this.
I have already recommended this course to a friend who has also taken
it. We both are very happy with the results. Thanks Again."
"It made me feel good to know that Cecelia Allison is an
expert on this subject. I bought both of her books and I have learned a
lot. Her style of teaching makes learning easy and fun. I feel very
fortunate to have learned from such an expert in the field."
"It was a great class! It not only gave me the knowledge of
SQL, but it also improved my abilities in other applications such as MS
Access and MS Excel. The instructor presented the subject matter in a
perfect balance of technical and practical. It was evident to me she
has educational and in-the-field expert experience. She is also
personable and helpful."
"I was impressed with this class and even more with the fact
that after reading one of the discussion responses that I was actually
doing intermediate to advanced work with SQL and understanding it is a
huge complement to the instructor. I have never been on Access or done
any work with any other databases before either. I have since gone onto
my home computer and done a lot of work setting up databases with the
help of this course. Thank you and I will definitely be taking more and
taking the instructors advice from one of the discussion areas on what
to take in the future. Thank you again for a great class. After being
unemployed for a year it is great to have something to make me feel
good about!"
"I was very impressed with this Professor. She goes the extra mile and really tries to answer questions and solve problems."
"The course gave me a 'challenging' introduction to SQL. It
introduced two types of databases that I had not previously
used:Microsoft Access and SQL Query 7. The examples and assignments
reinforced what had been taught in previous lessons. Thank you. I not
only learned a great deal but had a good time."
"The instructor, material, and overall presentation of the
course were excellent and met my expectations. The course is revelent
to my job responsiblities and adds to skills and expirience."
"This class was very useful - a great help to me at work,
where I'm helping an administrator develop a database, Access 2000
frontend/SQL server backend. After getting through the lessons, it has
been fun to go back & look at procedures and recognize commands I
wrote when I didn't really know what I was doing!"
"This course helped reinforce what I already knew and
exposed me to the basics of the more advanced topics. It has helped me
to become more confident in manipulating the data in Query Analyzer.
Thank you!"
"This course was well structured and I was very impressed
with the content and instructor. I have a BA and an MBA and I think
this short class packed more valuable info then other classes I've
taken. I've also attended company sponsored Oracle classes & was
rushed thru the learning process. I really enjoyed the pace of this
course. I was able to absorb the material & hopefully retain it and
apply it at work. One other comment regarding the instructor - I was
amazed how quickly she responded to any discussion question I posted.
My husband is attending the University of Phoenix, spending lots of
money and he doesn't get the response or support that Cecelia Allison
has provided. As time permits, I would love to take another on-line
class and I would recommend it highly to others."
"This course will be so much help to me in my job as a mainframe computer operator! Thank you so much for offering it!"
"This is one of the best on line classes I have taken yet. Thanks for offering it."
"This was a very good class. Even though I am not a detailed
person, this class made me look a little closer at things. The class
was very easy to follow and the instructions were easy to follow as
well."
"This was my first on line class, and I must say, I learned so much and could learn at my own pace, it was great, thanks again."
"Very good course. I felt it was well written, well organized and laid out logically."
"Very nice introduction to SQL. This helped me gain a better
basic understanding of things I'd been tampering with for several
years. I could probably have saved myself many frustrating hours having
taken a course like this a couple years back."
"What a great teacher! She did such a great job...I can't wait to learn more from her."
"When I started this course, I really didn't know anything
about SQL. This course has helped me a lot in learning the basics about
SQL. I feel more comfortable using it at work now. Cecelia's book was
also a great help and I recommend it to those who are just starting to
learn this course. I'm so glad I found this course, and I look forward
for the next intermediate class that Cecelia is going to offer."
"Wonderful introductory course! I really enjoyed it and the
instructor showed a thorough knowledge of this course. She was able to
make it easy and simple to follow with her real world examples and
extensive definitions. I would truly recommend this course for any
novice SQL user. It provides you with a solid basis in this programming
language. Thank you!"
To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
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Learn
the key concepts of Structured Query Language (SQL) and gain a solid
working knowledge of this powerful and universal database programming
language. You'll learn the basic structure of relational databases, how
to read and write simple and complex SQL statements, and advanced data
manipulation techniques.