Blogs from Wise Owl on Selecting data in SQL

A new acronym for the order of SQL keywords

Posted by Andy Brown on 29 March 2019

Someone has finally won our competition to think of a better acronym for the order of keywords in SQL, we're pleased to announce.

A short blog listing many ways to create aliases for columns in SQL

Posted by Andy Brown on 01 February 2016

It's not often that this owl learns new things about SQL when giving a course, but when I do, I like to share my new knowledge! This blog shows a new way to create aliases for columns in SQL.

Using ORDER BY to Sort in SQL Server Queries

Posted by Andrew Gould on 23 July 2012

If your SQL queries return lots of records you'll probably want to sort the results in some kind of order. This blog teaches you how to use the ORDER BY clause to do exactly that!

Basic SQL Queries

Posted by Andrew Gould on 23 July 2012

This blog teaches the absolute basics of writing queries in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. You'll learn how to use the SELECT and FROM keywords to create simple queries showing all of the records from a single table.

Dynamic SQL - No, No, No!

Posted by David Wakefield on 02 July 2012

Dynamic SQL should only be used as a last resort. This article gives you a tip for avoiding the use of dynamic SQL in WHERE clauses

Free SQL training

Posted by Andrew Gould on 13 February 2012

This article provides a comprehensive tutorial in Microsoft SQL Server, taking you from the basics of writing SELECT statements all the way through to creating complex stored procedures.

Using SQL UNION queries to populate the first Item in a list type control

Posted by David Wakefield on 31 May 2011

Adding a first or default item to a list control which gets its data from a table can be tricky. This blog gives an elegant solution using UNION queries, which works equally well for ASP.NET dropdown controls, Windows Forms dropdowns or Access combo boxes.