SQL 101: Introduction to Database Queries

SQL is the database language that allows you to understand the data behind almost every website and internet company.

I've been at a tech company for a couple years and have learned one universal truth: data rules all. The most common request I get as a software engineer is to "pull some data" from our database. What I've realized is that about 95% of these requests involve a very basic query that could be performed by any one of my colleagues.

With the information in this class, you'll be better able to understand, access, and measure your user data and behavior. Whether you are an entrepreneur, analyst, or marketer, SQL can help you execute smarter and faster! 

What You'll Learn

• SQL Fundamentals. We will talk about relational databases and what SQL can do with a relational database.
• Setting Up Our Environments. We will set up our environments so that we can run SQL commands together.
• Creating Data. You will create your own table and populate it with data.
• Single Table Queries. We will cover the basics that will allow you to pull any combination of information from a single table, including FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, COUNT, SUM, HAVING, SELECT, and ORDER BY.
• Joins. We will cover Joins and how they are important for defining relational data between tables.
• Subqueries. You will convert Joins into equivalent subqueries.

The Project

• Deliverable. Your final project will be to create a database and query it in SQL.
• Guiding Questions. What kind of data will you create? How will you categorize this data? How will your data sets relate to each other? What is the correct way to retrieve data? 
• Collaboration. Ask your fellow classmates for feedback on your data set. How could you create more precise data points? What retrieval methods work best for solving your queries from their perspective?

By the end of the course, you will have created your own query-searchable database using SQLite, and you'll be able to edit and query data on your own.

Let's get started!