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Advanced SQL Training Course

Two days (09:30 to 16:30 UK time each day)

This course is available in the following formats (all prices exclude VAT):

 

You can book a place on this course either online through this website, by phone, by email or by filling in our enquiry form.

You should only attend this course if you have either attended our two-day introduction to SQL course or if you are comfortable creating queries using SQL.  The course shows how to write the dialect of SQL used by Microsoft (called T-SQL), using SQL Server Management Studio as a development environment.

Course schedule

Here are our next few Advanced SQL course dates:

Dates Times Venue Price (excl. VAT)
24-25 Oct 09:30-16:30 Online £950 Book
19-20 Nov 09:30-16:30 London £1,450 Book
21-22 Nov 09:30-16:30 Online £950 Book
09-10 Jan 09:30-16:30 Online £950 Book
03-04 Feb 09:30-16:30 Manchester £1,095 Book
Show full list of dates

Got a handful of like-minded people in your organisation? You could consider booking your own customised onsite course, whereby you get to pick the dates and venue!

Course Contents - PDF

Advanced SQL training course contents

Learning to write SQL involves two things.  First, you need to learn how to write SELECT statements to interrogate your corporate database (including joining tables, setting criteria and grouping data).  For this our two-day Introduction to SQL course is ideal.  This is where most people choose to stop.

However, SQL is so much more than just the SELECT statement.  Our advanced SQL course will teach you how to program in SQL, including:

  • Creating and running stored procedures (programs in SQL), including passing parameters

  • Creating your own user-defined functions

  • Inserting, updating and deleting rows and tables

  • Working with temporary tables and table variables

  • Creating Common Table Expressions (CTEs)

You should only consider attending this course if you already understand how to select data in SQL (including joining tables).

The contents of this course are as follows:

Stored procedures

  • Creating stored procedures
  • Executing stored procedures
  • System stored procedures

Variables

  • Declaring variables
  • SET versus SELECT
  • Tricks with variables
  • So-called global variables

Parameters and return values

  • Passing parameters
  • Default values / WHERE clauses
  • Output parameters
  • Using RETURN

Scalar functions

  • What they are
  • Writing user-defined functions
  • Worked examples
  • Pros and cons of scalar functions

Testing conditions

  • IF / ELSE statement
  • Using CASE where possible

Looping

  • Syntax of WHILE
  • Breaking out of a loop

Error-handling

  • Using TRY / CATCH
  • System error functions
  • Custom error messages

Deleting using SQL

  • Ways to drop tables
  • DELETE versus TRUNCATE

Updating data in SQL

  • The UPDATE statement
  • Updating using joins

Inserting data

  • Making tables (SELECT INTO)
  • Appending data (INSERT INTO)
  • Inserting individual rows

Creating tables

  • Creating tables in SQL
  • Primary keys and indexes
  • Adding relationships

Transactions

  • Beginning a transaction
  • Committing / rolling back

Temporary tables and table variables

  • Scope (local versus global)
  • Using temporary tables
  • Creating table variables
  • Pros and cons of each approach

Table-valued functions   if time

  • In-line table-valued functions
  • Mult-statement table-valued functions

Derived tables and CTEs

  • Using derived tables
  • Common Table Expressions (CTEs)
  • Multiple CTEs in a single query

Debugging   if time

  • Debugging queries and procedures
  • Setting breakpoints

Dynamic SQL   if time

  • Building up dynamic SQL
  • Executing dynamic SQL
  • Disadvantages of dynamic SQL

Pivots   if time

  • Assembling data for pivoting
  • Using PIVOT
  • Dynamic column headers

Triggers   if time

  • Insert, update and delete triggers
  • Using generated tables (eg INSERTED)
  • Using INSTEAD OF
Please see further up this page for what you should know beforehand (if anything) in order to attend this course.

Why Choose Us?

Here are some reasons to choose Wise Owl courses:

In addition, here are some benefits unique to classroom training:

And some benefits specific to online training:

  • Courseware manual posted to you in advance
  • Free half-hour pre-course check-up included
  • Our clever system means you can use our laptops (and we can see them)

What other people have said

Our thanks to everyone who agreed to share their thoughts. All of the following reviews are from the last 3 calendar years:

"Well planned and presented."

Rob Cook (Live Nation (Music) UK Limited)

"This course was very useful and helpful for the work that we will be undertaking at the council in the future. Our trainer was very knowledgeable, very helpful and delivered the course at a very good pace. He was able to answer any questions I had and was able to advise on how we are using the system for our performance data. Will definitely be doing another course with you in the future. I have previously done the Introduction to SQL course, so wanted to expand my knowledge further and learn how I could implement all the different techniques into our own system. I will be exploring the Power BI courses once we are in a position to do so."

Scott Lea (City of Lincoln Council)

"I thoroughly enjoyed the advanced sql course. I had attended the basic sql course in October and this course was a great continuation on the topics learnt. I picked up lots of new and useful skills that I will be able to transfer over into my daily work, which has drastically improved since the basic course. My trainer was superb also, extremely knowledgeable on every topic covered and his passion really came through. He answered all the questions we asked over the 2 days with great insight and knowledge and was really helpful over the duration of the course. I have really enjoyed both courses and would definitely recommend Wise Owl to anyone who requires training in the future."

Cameron Daulby (Ifor Williams Trailers Ltd)

"Very good course - very well delivered, with information given in digestible chunks and learned a lot of very useful tools and techniques. Instructor was very clear and explained each concept well. Would recommend this course."

Oliver Staunton (UK Research & Innovation (UKRI))

"This was a great follow on course to the beginner level. The course was well paced and the trainer fielded questions directly related to our work. Facilities at the venue were excellent as well. The course handbooks with exercises are well produced and will provide a good reference for later use. I'd highly recommend this course/company. Your YouTube channel prompted us to originally choose your course and the fact that there was a regional venue for the class."

Nathan Cain (Home Office)

There are lots more where these came from (or just refresh this page to change the quotes shown).

How our training courses work

Below are some notes on how Wise Owl courses work, to help you decide whether they're for you or not.

What you'll need

If you book on a classroom course, the only thing you need to bring to the course is ... yourself! We even provide a notepad and a suprisingly nice pen for you to take notes with.

For online training you'll need two things:

  1. A good internet connection (otherwise you'll have a frustrating time); and
  2. A second screen (a requirement, not a nice-to-have!)

You can see full details of our online course requirements here.

When you book a place

If you book a place on one of our courses:

  • For classroom courses we will send out a joining email. That's it!
  • For online courses we will get in touch to organise a half-hour pre-course check to iron out any connection problems before the course (rather than during it).

Whatever type of course you book, we will also send you out a reminder a few days before the course is due to take place - not that (we hope) you'll have forgotten!

What you won't need

For classroom training, you won't need a computer - we (obviously) will provide that. However, you're welcome to use your own laptop if you prefer, providing that you have the correct software installed.

For online training you will need a computer, but you won't need to have any software installed.  This is because you'll use Windows Remote Desktop to connect to our computers, and these will have all of the necessary files and software installed.

The start of the course

For online courses you will be able to join up to half an hour before the course begins. This will give you time to:

  • familiarise yourself with the set-up;
  • meet your trainer; and
  • get to know the other delegates!

For classroom training it's always nice if people arrive a bit early too, to give people time to meet each other (and drink coffee).

You'll be given a full colour courseware manual, an exercise booklet to go with the course and a USB stick for taking course files away (we'll post all this to you for online courses).

After the course

After the course finishes you'll receive a digital certificate proving your attendance (we will gladly send a paper copy on request also).

We don't have any formal arrangement for answering questions after the course, but if you get stuck on something and email your trainer they should (and nearly always do!) respond as quickly as their training schedule allows.

Related Courses

You might like to consider these related courses:

Introduction to SQL

Basic

2 day course

Reporting Services RECOMMENDED

Introduction

2 day course

Introduction to SSIS

Introduction

2 day course

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