SQL Server videos
Learn SQL Server by watching videos
Having a certification in SQL Server can be advantageous to your career, but there’s a lot to concentrate on. Where do you start? What would Microsoft want you to learn?
Well, Microsoft has an examination about T-SQL, the language about adding data to and retrieving information from SQL Server. It is called “70-461 Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012“, and learning the information that you need to pass that exam would be a good step in your career, even if you don’t take the exam.
Ways to learn
The best way to learn is to see it and then do it. This can be done by video. One of the most popular video series sold only lasts around a couple of hours. Bundled as a part of a training kit, this deficiency doesn’t become apparent until you have actually seen it, by which time it is too late. However, T-SQL cannot be learnt in just a couple of hours, and this does not go into any significant detail.
There are courses which try to teach more about the requirements for the course. The major problem with these is that they are residential. This means that the cost is high, because you have to pay for the overnight stays, for the food, and for the instructor’s time. However, they are more complete, lasting as they do about five days (this includes time for you to practice what you have learnt). This shows how much time is roughly needed to start to learn T-SQL properly (the recommended time for study is around 80 hours).
Therefore, I have created a course which tries to combine the best of both worlds. It takes the premise that T-SQL needs to be learned thoroughly, and that the five days time taken by residential courses (including your practice time) is about right. However, as a video course, you don’t need to pay for meals or accommodation.
My courses
As my series of courses aims to emulate residential courses, that amount of time allows me to go into topics in detail. Even better, there are also quizzes along to way, to test your learning and make sure that you build on your knowledge.
They are hosted on Udemy, which means that you can watch them on your computer, or you can download the Udemy App on your iPhone, iPad or Android device and take it with you.
You don’t need any prior database skills – just a willingness to learn. Especially in the first couple of courses, we learn it nice and slowly. By the end of each course, you should be confident in your ability to do the above, and be excited about learning more and getting closer to taking the exam.
Does this sound interesting? Then why not go over to Session 1 and have a look at some of the lessons using the Free Preview feature. If you like what you see, then hit that Enrol button, and I’ll see you in the course.
The great thing about my video courses is the cost. Several SQL video courses cost several hundred dollars, and don’t give you the same quantity of learning that mine do.
My courses retail for $20 each and, as they emulate residential courses, each course lasts a session (either a morning session or an afternoon session), meaning that they last around three and a half hours each.
However, as a thank you for reading this, you can use my voucher LOVEOFFICE, and get each session for only $10. This is the lowest price that you will find my courses available for.
Start learning for 50% offWhat can you learn in each session?
Session 1
Today I’ll be introducing you to world of T-SQL. We’ll be download and installing SQL Server for free, so that you can use it on your machine.
We’ll be looking at how to create, alter and remove tables, looking at number, string and date data types and functions in some detail, and then constructing a query, using SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING and ORDER BY. Find out more about Session 1.
Using my voucher LOVEOFFICE, this course costs only $10.
Session 2
In session 1 we learnt all about dates, strings and number data types and functions in some detail.
We’ll create tables which use these, and then INSERT some data into them. Then we’ll write queries which will retrieve and summary this data, using SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING and ORDER BY.
We’ll then JOIN these tables together to find where we are missing data and where we have inconsistent data. We’ll then UPDATE and DELETE data from the tables. This will allow up to fully complete objective number 1 from the 70-461 exam. Find out more about Session 2.
Using my voucher LOVEOFFICE, this course costs only $10.
Session 3
We’ll now use that data to create views, which enable us to store these SELECT queries for future use, and triggers, which allow for code to be automatically run when INSERTing, DELETEing or UPDATEing data.
We’ll look at the database that we developed in session 2, and see what is wrong with it. We’ll add some constraints, such as UNIQUE, CHECK, PRIMARY KEY and FOREIGN KEY constraints, to stop erroneous data from being added some data. By doing this, we will complete objectives 2, 3, 4 and 5 from the 70-461 exam. Find out more about Session 3.
Using my voucher LOVEOFFICE, this course costs only $10.
Session 4
We will further encapsulate our routines by creating procedures, allowing us to EXECUTE parameterised commands with just one statement, and we’ll add some error handling with TRY, CATCH and THROW.
We’ll also combine datasets together, by looking at UNION and UNION ALL, INTERSECT and EXCEPT, CASE, ISNULL and Coalesce, and the mighty MERGE statement. By doing this, we will complete objectives 11, 12, 13 and parts of 6 and 18 from the 70-461 exam. Find out more about Session 4.
Using my voucher LOVEOFFICE, this course costs only $10.
Session 5
We’ll will now be creating aggregate queries, working through objective 9 of the exam 70-461. We’ll be reviewing the ranking functions ROW_NUMBER, RANK, DENSE_RANK and NTILE. We’ll look at the 8 analytic functions news to SQL Server 2012, such as LAG, LEAD, FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE.
We’ll look at alternative ways of grouping and adding totals, using ROLLUP, CUBE, GROUPING SETS and GROUPING_ID. We’ll also look at the geometry and geography data types, plotting locations on a grid, together with functions and aggregates. Find out more about Session 5.
Using my voucher LOVEOFFICE, this course costs only $10.
Session 6
We’ll will now be creating sub-queries, working through objectives 7b-e of the exam 70-461. We’ll be created correlated subqueries, where the results of the subquery depend on the main query. We’ll be looking at Common Table Expressions using the WITH statement, and we’ll be using what we have learned to solve a common business problem.
We’ll be looking at functions (objective 14), including the three different types of User Defined Functions (UDF): scalar functions, inline table functions, and multi-statement table functions. We’ll then complete objective 6 by looking at synonyms and dynamic SQL, and objective 8 by looking at the use of GUIDs. We’ll also look at sequences. Find out more about Session 6.
Using my voucher LOVEOFFICE, this course costs only $10.
