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Introduction to SQL Course (2 days)

Shaun (one of our 7 Wise Owl trainers)

Find the right course for you

Over 50 Google
5-star reviews

CPD course logo - Introduction to SQL

541 attributed
reviews

Topics covered on this course

  • Using SQL Server

    Subtopics

    1. SQL Server Management Studio
    2. Controlling windows
    3. Using Object Explorer
  • Creating databases - overview

    Subtopics

    1. Designing databases
    2. Primary keys
  • Working with tables

    Subtopics

    1. Creating tables
    2. Allowing nulls or not
    3. Identity fields
    4. Creating relationships
  • Query Designer

    Subtopics

    1. Building queries
    2. Editing queries in the designer
  • Simple Queries

    Subtopics

    1. Creating queries
    2. Comments
    3. Indentation and case
  • Setting criteria using WHERE

    Subtopics

    1. Wildcards (% and _)
    2. Setting criteria for dates
    3. Coping with nulls
  • Calculations

    Subtopics

    1. Calculated columns
    2. Using aliases
    3. String functions and concatenation
  • Calculations using dates

    Subtopics

    1. GetDate
    2. Converting dates
    3. Useful date functions
  • Basic joins

    Subtopics

    1. Inner joins
    2. Table aliases
    3. Left and right outer joins
  • Aggregation and grouping

    Subtopics

    1. SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX
    2. Various ways to count
    3. Grouping by fields
    4. Using HAVING to filter results
  • Views

    Subtopics

    1. The view designer
    2. Limitations of the designer
    3. Scripting views
  • Subqueries  

    Subtopics

    1. The concept of a subquery
    2. Syntax of subqueries
    3. Using subqueries in a query
  • Derived tables and CTEs  

    Subtopics

    1. Using derived tables
    2. Common Table Expressions (CTEs)
    3. Multiple CTEs in a single query

Topics marked will be covered if time allows.

Get a PDF of the course contents

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 posted to you in advance
  • Separate pre-course check-up included
  • Our clever Wordsworth system means you can use our laptops (and we can see them)

We've been in business over 30 years - we must be doing something right!

Introduction to Writing SQL course dates

The table below lists the Introduction to Writing SQL courses that we currently have scheduled (click on one of the tabs to filter the list).

Date(s) Date(s) Duration Venue Price Times  
Thu/Fri 20-21 February 2025 20-21 Feb 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 03-04 March 2025 03-04 Mar 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 20-21 March 2025 20-21 Mar 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 03-04 April 2025 03-04 Apr 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 08-09 April 2025 08-09 Apr 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 22-23 April 2025 22-23 Apr 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 08-09 May 2025 08-09 May 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 19-20 May 2025 19-20 May 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 20-21 May 2025 20-21 May 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 02-03 June 2025 02-03 Jun 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 19-20 June 2025 19-20 Jun 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 24-25 June 2025 24-25 Jun 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 03-04 July 2025 03-04 Jul 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 21-22 July 2025 21-22 Jul 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Wed/Thu 20-21 August 2025 20-21 Aug 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 01-02 September 2025 01-02 Sep 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 18-19 September 2025 18-19 Sep 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 23-24 September 2025 23-24 Sep 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 02-03 October 2025 02-03 Oct 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 20-21 October 2025 20-21 Oct 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 21-22 October 2025 21-22 Oct 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 03-04 November 2025 03-04 Nov 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 17-18 November 2025 17-18 Nov 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 25-26 November 2025 25-26 Nov 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 11-12 December 2025 11-12 Dec 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book

If you can't see the course you want listed above, don't despair! If you can muster 3 or 4 people together, it may well be worth organising an onsite course at your office (we'll provide and set up the computers), or else an online course tailored to your needs.

Date(s) Date(s) Duration Venue Price Times  
Tue/Wed 08-09 April 2025 08-09 Apr 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 20-21 May 2025 20-21 May 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 24-25 June 2025 24-25 Jun 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 23-24 September 2025 23-24 Sep 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 21-22 October 2025 21-22 Oct 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 25-26 November 2025 25-26 Nov 2 days London £1,425.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book

If you can't see the course you want listed above, don't despair! If you can muster 3 or 4 people together, it may well be worth organising an onsite course at your office (we'll provide and set up the computers), or else an online course tailored to your needs.

Date(s) Date(s) Duration Venue Price Times  
Mon/Tue 03-04 March 2025 03-04 Mar 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 03-04 April 2025 03-04 Apr 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 08-09 May 2025 08-09 May 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 02-03 June 2025 02-03 Jun 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 03-04 July 2025 03-04 Jul 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 01-02 September 2025 01-02 Sep 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 02-03 October 2025 02-03 Oct 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 03-04 November 2025 03-04 Nov 2 days Manchester £1,050.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book

If you can't see the course you want listed above, don't despair! If you can muster 3 or 4 people together, it may well be worth organising an onsite course at your office (we'll provide and set up the computers), or else an online course tailored to your needs.

Date(s) Date(s) Duration Venue Price Times  
Thu/Fri 20-21 February 2025 20-21 Feb 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 20-21 March 2025 20-21 Mar 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Tue/Wed 22-23 April 2025 22-23 Apr 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 19-20 May 2025 19-20 May 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 19-20 June 2025 19-20 Jun 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 21-22 July 2025 21-22 Jul 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Wed/Thu 20-21 August 2025 20-21 Aug 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 18-19 September 2025 18-19 Sep 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 20-21 October 2025 20-21 Oct 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Mon/Tue 17-18 November 2025 17-18 Nov 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book
Thu/Fri 11-12 December 2025 11-12 Dec 2 days Online £875.00 + VAT 09:30-16:30 Book

If you can't see the course you want listed above, don't despair! If you can muster 3 or 4 people together, it may well be worth organising an onsite course at your office (we'll provide and set up the computers), or else an online course tailored to your needs.

About half of our courses are created bespoke for a single organisation, and either delivered onsite (usually somewhere in the UK, but we're willing to travel!) or online. For onsite courses we will usually provide and set up the necessary computers free of charge.

There are four main reasons why you might want to book tailored training like this:

  1. If you have 3 or more people, organising custom training will probably be cheaper than booking people individually onto a scheduled course.
  2. You'll be able to choose the content of any training, and be able to pause it for discussions on how you'll use software internally, or ask to take digressions.
  3. You may not be able to travel to our venues, so it might be easier to ask us to travel to you.
  4. You may not be able to make the dates of our published scheduled courses, and want to be able to choose when your training takes place.

If you'd like a quote for how much a tailored course would cost please let us know what you'd like to achieve and we'll get back to you (normally within half a working day).

What other people have said about our Introduction to SQL course

Here are some comments we've received about our Introduction to SQL course . You can see all of our 541 reviews here. We would like to sincerely thank the clients whose names are shown below for kindly agreeing to let us share their feedback.

"A great trainer - very friendly, engaging and extremely knowledgeable. The course was organised and efficient. The manual was very useful as we learnt a lot over the two days, so having all the information to hand and to take away was great. Would recommend the course."

Jess Dyer

CFC Underwriting

"I thought the course was superb. The content delivery and the accessibility to all was really impressive, having the exercises to work through during the course helped consolidate the knowledge. The content was really easy to follow and if we were ever stuck, were given the confidence to feel like we could ask for help. I have been on multiple different training courses with different providers and I can honestly say the course was delivered by the best trainer I have ever had. The passion he has for teaching and helping others learn was clearly on show and was so refreshing and great to see. Throughout both days he made you feel so welcome and that no question was a stupid question, he was always there to help and guide you through any problems we had and overall he was just amazing, I couldn't have asked for any more and he went above and beyond my expectations for the course and what I would gain from it. "

Cameron Daulby

Ifor Williams Trailers Ltd

"The trainer was great, answered a number of specific questions and expanded to explain why things worked the way they do, which really helped with my own understanding. The training was well paced with plenty of opportunities to have a go and ask questions."

Ruth Pearson

Maggie's

"An amazing teacher! I was particularly impressed with the pacing off the classes, they never felt too fast or slow. It was a matter of layering simple concepts on top of each other until we could understand something quite complicate, which really worked for me. I've been singing Wise Owl's praises ever since!"

Conor Anderson

PEI Group

"The course overall was great and I am happy I did it. The trainer was very friendly and taught everything thoroughly and with a lot of patience. The course materials were really helpful and thoroughly covered all aspects of SQL, especially for someone new to it! One thing which was particularly valuable was the step-by-step instructions included within."

Jasdeep Sandhu

CFC Underwriting

"I had a great time, thank you so much for a fab course!"

Holly Tyers

Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG)

About this Introduction to Writing SQL course

Click on one of the tabs below to see the given information about the course.

If your organisation has a database built in SQL Server (whether Agresso/Unit4, Dynamics, LiquidLogic, Sage or any proprietary system) this course will show you how to get information out of it!  You'll learn how to:

  • Write queries in T-SQL or Transact SQL (the dialect of SQL used in SQL Server)

  • Apply criteria to pick out only records of interest

  • Create expressions using keywords like CASE WHEN and CAST

  • Link tables together using inner and outer joins

  • Aggregate data using the GROUP BY clause to show statistics

You don't need any base knowledge to join this course (although you will need to understand your corporate database to get information out of it - we can't teach you that bit!).

Pre-requisites

There aren't any pre-requisites for this course, although you'll find it easier if you've already seen a relational database (one with lots of tables joined together).  The course uses SQL Server Management Studio, although if you're booking an onsite SQL course we will on request use Azure Data Studio instead.

What you'll need to bring

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.

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 using our whizzy Wordsworth online training system, and these computers will have all of the necessary files and software installed.

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). We will also ask you whether you want to receive a printed copy of the course manual (and post this to you if you do).

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!

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.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions

Click on any heading below to learn more!

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What other SQL courses can I take?▼

Here is a list of all of the SQL courses that we run:

Course name Days
Introduction to SQL (this course) 2 days
Advanced SQL 2 days
SQL in Azure Data Studio 2 days
Fast track SQL 3 days

What courses do you have related to this one?▼

You might like to consider invesigating these related courses:

Related course Days Level
Advanced SQL 2 days Intermediate or advanced
Reporting Services 2 days Introduction
Introduction to SSIS 2 days Introduction

What are your venues for your classroom SQL courses?▼

We run our scheduled classroom training courses in the following venues:

Venue Details
SQL training in London We run our courses in London from the LandMark offices in Bishopsgate, right in the middle of the City (and close to Liverpool Street mainline station).
SQL training in Manchester We run our courses in Manchester from the Holiday Inn business centre, which is a few minutes' walk from Piccadilly station.
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Head office

Kingsmoor House

Railway Street

GLOSSOP

SK13 2AA

London

Landmark Offices

99 Bishopsgate

LONDON

EC2M 3XD

Manchester

Holiday Inn

25 Aytoun Street

MANCHESTER

M1 3AE

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