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Fast track SQL course (3 days)

Three 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.

There are no special pre-requisites for you to satisfy to attend this course, other than to have a good level of IT literacy.  If you don't find it easy to create Excel formulae you should avoid this course!

Course schedule

Here are our next few Fast track SQL course dates:

Dates Times Venue Price (excl. VAT)
14-16 Jan 09:30-16:30 Manchester £1,595 Book
29-31 Jan 09:30-16:30 Online £1,295 Book
12-14 Mar 09:30-16:30 Online £1,295 Book
28-30 Apr 09:30-16:30 Online £1,295 Book
11-13 Jun 09:30-16:30 Online £1,295 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

Fast track SQL - Course Contents

Out of all of our three-day fast-track courses, this is probably the one which offers the best alternative to the relevant two-day introduction and two-day advanced courses.  This is for two reasons:

  • The progression from selecting data in SQL through to advanced topics like creating stored procedures is natural and fairly straightforward.

  • The fast-track course misses out some topics which are of less use than others (table-valued functions spring to mind).

However, for many people three days of training can be a day too much, so please do bear this in mind when considering booking onto this course (if you find learning software difficult, this also isn't the course for you).

This fast-track course combines topics from the following other Wise Owl courses:

From our INTRODUCTION TO SQL course

Using SQL Server

  • SQL Server Management Studio
  • Controlling windows
  • Using Object Explorer

Creating databases - overview

  • Designing databases
  • Primary keys

Working with tables

  • Creating tables
  • Allowing nulls or not
  • Identity fields
  • Creating relationships

Simple Queries

  • Creating queries
  • Comments
  • Indentation and case

Setting criteria using WHERE

  • Wildcards (% and _)
  • Setting criteria for dates
  • Coping with nulls

Calculations

  • Calculated columns
  • Using aliases
  • String functions and concatenation

Calculations using dates

  • GetDate
  • Converting dates
  • Useful date functions

Basic joins

  • Inner joins
  • Table aliases
  • Left and right outer joins

Aggregation and grouping

  • SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX
  • Various ways to count
  • Grouping by fields
  • Using HAVING to filter results

Views

  • The view designer
  • Limitations of the designer
  • Scripting views

Subqueries

  • The concept of a subquery
  • Syntax of subqueries
  • Using subqueries in a query

Derived tables and CTEs

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

From our ADVANCED SQL course

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   if time

  • 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   if time

  • 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   if time

  • 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

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

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:

"I thought that the pace of the course was good. We had an excellent trainer; personable, keeping explanations to the point, and leading 'code along' examples of the topics in a way I found both accessible and instructive. I found the suggested real world implementations of concepts that we covered to be helpful. The fundamentals of SQL were covered in such a way that I was able to understand the topics without being side-tracked by complex alternative ways of doing things. The exercises we completed were appropriate for such a short course, and very much helped to solidify my understanding of the useful Left Join. We covered the advanced course at a pace I found to be pleasantly challenging while remaining interesting. Overall I though that the course has been an invaluable help to using SQL in the workplace, and the online training was practical, enjoyable and expertly paced. The course was recommended by a colleague!"

Jonathan Ferguson (Southbank Centre)

"The course was very well taught & it was the clear that the trainer was very knowledgeable and had lots of experience. Teaching online was great as the instructor could clearly see what we were doing on the Remote Desktop. Plenty of breaks which was good as too much information too quickly would normally cause a headache! Chose fast track SQL to learn as much as possible in a short space of time. Glad to have learnt parts from both intro to SQL and advanced SQL course, definitely made the most of our time."

Evie Topp (Clayton Glass Ltd)

"Very enjoyable course, communication and procedure from start to finish was great as well. I had everything I needed well in advance, which is a huge plus; this meant no faffing around on the day-of and we were straight in there."

Bradley Swift (Torus62 Ltd)

"I thought the training was a good introduction to SQL. The trainer was obviously very experienced and I found it useful that he explained why certain aspects were important, rather than just how. He was clear and easy to understand. "

Jessica Clark (West Berkshire Council)

"The class size was ideal. The trainer provided a thoughtful and entertaining experience, and was clearly well prepared. Remotely signing in was seamless. I needed proper training on SQL, having had to self-teach for several months."

Alexander Mason (Capel Manor College)

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

Introduction

2 day course

Advanced SQL

Advanced

2 day course

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