SQL Querying: Fundamentals
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What you'll learn
Write basic SQL statements to extract specific columns and filter rows from database tables.
Apply built-in string and date functions to transform and organize your data.
Combine data from multiple related tables using various join types and export the results.
Learn by doing. Perform guided, step-by-step hands-on activities on your own computer.
Skills you'll gain
Details to know
January 2026
1 assignment
See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills
There are 7 modules in this course
Organizations typically store their most critical information—the information used to manage day-to-day operations—within a database. The ability to retrieve and analyze this information is essential to the functioning of the organization. Structured Query Language (SQL) is the primary language used to accomplish such tasks. Essentially, SQL is the language you use to interact with a database.
The ability to write SQL is an essential job skill for those who need to manage large volumes of data, produce reports, mine data, or combine data from multiple sources. Even if someone else on your team creates reports for you, having a fundamental understanding of SQL querying will help you ask the right questions and know what you're looking for in your data analysis tools. This course, SQL Querying: Fundamentals, will teach you to use SQL as a tool to retrieve the information you need from databases. This course is intended for individuals with basic computer skills, familiar with concepts related to database structure and terminology, who want to use SQL to query databases. In this course, you will: connect to the SQL Server database and execute a simple query, include a search condition in a simple query, use various functions to perform calculations on data, organize the data obtained from a query before it is displayed onscreen, retrieve data from multiple tables, and export the results of a query. This course requires that you have Microsoft SQL Server Express and Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) installed on a Windows PC. The course setup instructions provided in the first module of the course go into more detail about the hardware and software requirements.
In this course, you will query an SQL database using fundamental query techniques. Simple queries form the basis of building your querying skills. In this lesson, you will begin by composing and executing a simple SQL statement to retrieve information from a database. You will then modify and save a query so that you can use it later
What's included
20 plugins
20 plugins•Total 98 minutes
- Data Files and Setup for This Course•15 minutes
- About This Course•1 minute
- Lesson Introduction•1 minute
- Topic 1A: Connect to the SQL Database•1 minute
- 1A-1: Reading•10 minutes
- 1A-2: Activity•5 minutes
- Topic 1B: Query a Database•1 minute
- 1B-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 1B-2: Guidelines•1 minute
- 1B-3: Reading•5 minutes
- 1B-4: Activity•5 minutes
- Topic 1C: Save a Query•1 minute
- 1C-1: Reading•1 minute
- 1C-2: Activity•5 minutes
- Topic 1D: Modify and Execute a Saved Query•1 minute
- 1D-1: Reading•10 minutes
- 1D-2: Activity•5 minutes
- 1D-3: Activity•5 minutes
- Mastery Builder: Executing a Simple Query•15 minutes
- Lesson Summary•5 minutes
At this point, you have connected to a server, written a simple query and executed it, and saved that query to a file. With simple queries, you typically retrieve all the information in a table. In a production environment, however, you rarely need to view all the information in a table. Instead, you want to retrieve only the rows in a table that meet certain criteria. In this lesson, you will add criteria to your SELECT statements so that you can perform more sophisticated queries.
What's included
14 plugins
14 plugins•Total 149 minutes
- Lesson Introduction•1 minute
- Topic 2A: Search Using One or More Conditions•1 minute
- 2A-1: Reading•30 minutes
- 2A-2: Activity•15 minutes
- 2A-3: Activity•15 minutes
- 2A-4: Activity•15 minutes
- Topic 2B: Search for a Range of Values and NULL Values•1 minute
- 2B-1: Reading•10 minutes
- 2B-2: Activity•15 minutes
- Topic 2C: Search Data Based on String Patterns•1 minute
- 2C-1: Reading•10 minutes
- 2C-2: Activity•15 minutes
- Mastery Builder: Performing a Conditional Search•15 minutes
- Lesson Summary•5 minutes
You have retrieved specific data from a table by using a WHERE clause. But you can do more than just display data that is in a table. You can perform calculations and other operations on data and present it in a desired format. In this lesson, you will use various functions to perform calculations on data to obtain meaningful output from the database.
What's included
12 plugins
12 plugins•Total 89 minutes
- Lesson Introduction•1 minute
- Topic 3A: Perform Date Calculations•1 minute
- 3A-1: Reading•15 minutes
- 3A-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 3B: Calculate Data Using Aggregate Functions•1 minute
- 3B-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 3B-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 3C: Manipulate String Values•1 minute
- 3C-1: Reading•15 minutes
- 3C-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Mastery Builder: Working with Functions•15 minutes
- Lesson Summary•5 minutes
Retrieving data is the main purpose of most SQL queries. Organizing the data that appears in the result set helps you identify the information that you need instead of searching for it among the retrieved data. In this lesson, you will sort and group data so that the required output is displayed.
What's included
21 plugins
21 plugins•Total 127 minutes
- Lesson Introduction•1 minute
- Topic 4A: Sort Data•1 minute
- 4A-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 4A-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 4B: Rank Data•1 minute
- 4B-1: Reading•10 minutes
- 4B-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 4C: Group Data•1 minute
- 4C-1: Reading•10 minutes
- 4C-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 4D: Filter Grouped Data•1 minute
- 4D-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 4D-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 4E: Summarize Grouped Data•1 minute
- 4E-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 4E-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 4F: Use PIVOT and UNPIVOT Operators•1 minute
- 4F-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 4F-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Mastery Builder: Organizing Data•15 minutes
- Lesson Summary•5 minutes
Up to now, you have been retrieving and organizing data from a single table using various clauses and functions in SQL. In this lesson, you will retrieve data from multiple tables.
What's included
14 plugins
14 plugins•Total 124 minutes
- Lesson Introduction•1 minute
- Topic 5A: Combine the Results of Two Queries•1 minute
- 5A-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 5A-2: Activity•15 minutes
- Topic 5B: Compare the Results of Two Queries•1 minute
- 5B-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 5B-2: Activity•15 minutes
- Topic 5C: Retrieve Data by Joining Tables•1 minute
- 5C-1: Reading•15 minutes
- 5C-2: Activity•15 minutes
- 5C-3: Activity•15 minutes
- 5C-4: Activity•15 minutes
- Mastery Builder: Retrieving Data from Multiple Tables•15 minutes
- Lesson Summary•5 minutes
So far in this course, you have queried tables and viewed the results in the Results pane in Microsoft® SQL Server® Management Studio (SSMS). SQL professionals would have no problem with viewing and understanding such results. End users, on the other hand, typically don't have SSMS installed on their computers. For this reason, you need to be able to provide users with data in formats they can use in the applications they do have available to them. In this lesson, you will obtain query results in formats that users can use in other applications and tools.
What's included
9 plugins
9 plugins•Total 53 minutes
- Lesson Introduction•1 minute
- Topic 6A: Save Query Results as a Text File•1 minute
- 6A-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 6A-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Topic 6B: Save Query Results as an XML File•1 minute
- 6B-1: Reading•5 minutes
- 6B-2: Activity•10 minutes
- Mastery Builder: Exporting Query Results•15 minutes
- Lesson Summary•5 minutes
You'll wrap things up and then validate what you've learned in this course by taking an assessment.
What's included
1 assignment2 plugins
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
- Course Assessment•30 minutes
2 plugins•Total 6 minutes
- Course Summary•1 minute
- Appendix: The Pub1 Database•5 minutes
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