Introduction to SQL Course

SQL (Structured Query Language) is the programming language that we use to communicate with databases. Through this language, we can store data in a database and then change it, delete it, and retrieve it. It’s a powerful tool that virtually every company in the world relies on in some way. In fact, it’s one of the most in-demand skills for software developers. Fortunately, it is also very easy to learn SQL using our Introduction to SQL course.

Dev Playbook’s Introduction to SQL Databases course will give you the foundation that you need to begin learning SQL today.

Table of Contents

Creating a Plan for Learning SQL

Our Beginner SQL Guide helps you to understand the important things you need to know before you get started on your journey to becoming a skilled SQL developer. Things you should think about include:

Once you understand the best approach for becoming a database developer, our course can help you to learn from the ground up. There is no prior experience required to start learning with our course today.

What Topics Does the Introduction to SQL Course Cover?

The Dev Playbook Introduction to SQL Databases course will take you through the following topics in depth:

Introduction to Relational Databases

In this section you’ll learn what a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is and how we use these databases to store and organize data. We discuss database technologies that you will encounter and common terminology that you’ll use.

Microsoft SQL Server

Our course will teach you how to write SQL code that will work on most common database platforms. We use Microsoft SQL Server Developer Edition or Express Edition to do our exercises. There are some things that are specific to Microsoft SQL Server, but the concepts we teach can be easily applied to other database systems like MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Relational Database Building Blocks

When learning how to build and code for databases, it’s critical to understand the core concepts. We go through the basic building blocks for any database: tables, columns, rows, primary keys, and table relationships (using foreign keys). This section sets you up for long-term success with any SQL database system.

Structured Query Language

In this section we give you a deep dive introduction to the Structured Query Language (SQL or “sequel”).

Planning & Designing Databases

Before you start coding, it’s important to think about what data you want to store and how it should be organized. This section of the course teaches you how to think about that. We also introduce you to Entity Relationship Diagrams, a helpful tool for documenting your database design.

Creating the Database Structure

In this section, we do the work of building out the database structure that we will use for the rest of the course. We create tables with primary keys and we establish the relationships between those tables using foreign keys.

Getting Data Into the Database

This section introduces you to INSERT statements. We use these statements to get data into our database tables. We also provide the data you will need (through our GitHub repository) to complete the exercises and quizzes for the rest of the course.

Getting Data Out of the Database

This is our most in-depth section because getting data out of the database is perhaps the most common thing that you’ll need to do as a SQL developer. We deep dive into SELECT queries. You’ll be introduced to all sorts of JOIN clauses (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL, CROSS). You will also learn how to filter data with WHERE clauses and sort data with ORDER BY. We cover aggregating data with common functions and the GROUP BY clause. And we will introduce you to TOP and DISTINCT clauses and CASE statements. All of these sections include hands-on labs and exercises to help you learn how to use each of these yourself.

Modifying Data in the Database

In this section we teach you how to modify data in your database using UPDATE and DELETE clauses.

Start Learning SQL Today

Start Learning SQL Coding Today

As you can see, there’s a lot to learn about SQL. Our course introduces you to the concepts that you need to know. We give you hands-on experience writing SQL statements through labs and exercises. You’ll test your knowledge of SQL with quizzes. The course includes a GitHub repository with a data set to work with.

So what are you waiting for? If you get started today, then with just a couple of hours each day, you can be comfortable coding SQL within the next week! Use the button below to sign up for the Introduction to SQL Databases – SQL for Beginners course on Udemy.

Start Learning SQL Today