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Course

Applying SQL to Real-World Problems

IntermediateSkill Level

4.8+

Updated 09/2024

Find tables, store and manage new tables and views, and write maintainable SQL code to answer business questions.

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SQLReporting4 hr13 videos47 Exercises3,550 XP36,025Statement of Accomplishment

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Course Description

Now that you’ve learned the basic tools of SQL you are ready to synthesize them into practical, real-world skills. In this course, you will work with a database of a fictional movie rental company. The size and complexity of this database will allow you to experience the challenges of working with databases firsthand. Throughout this course, you will use SQL to answer business-driven questions. You will learn new skills that will empower you to find the tables you need. You will then learn how to store and manage this data in tables and views that you create. Best of all you will also learn how to write code that not only clearly conveys your intent but is also legible.

Prerequisites

Data Manipulation in SQL

1

Use Real-World SQL

You will review some of the most commonly used SQL commands to ensure you are prepared to tackle both real-world problems as well as every exercise covered in this course.

Essential SQL

Review the essentials

Practice the essentials

Transforming your results

Transform numeric & strings

Extract what you need

Working with aggregate functions

Aggregating finances

Aggregating strings

Which tables?

2

Find Your Data

How do you find the data you need in your database in order to answer real-world business questions? Here you will learn how to use system tables to explore your database. You will use these tables to create a new tool that contains a list of all tables and columns in your database. Finally, you will create an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) which will help you connect multiple tables.

Find the right table

LIMITing your search

Which table to use?

What tables are in your database?

Determine the monthly income

Join the correct tables

What columns are in your database?

A VIEW of all your columns

Testing out your new VIEW

The average length of films by category

Complex joins

Build the entity relationship diagram

Which films are most frequently rented?

3

Manage Your Data

Working with SQL to solve real-world problems will oftentimes require you to do more than retrieve the data you need, oftentimes you will need to manage the data in your database. This includes creating data, updating it and, when necessary, deleting it.

Store your data

Storing new data

Using existing data

TABLE vs VIEW

Update your data

What should you modify?

Update the price of rentals

Updated based on other tables

Delete your data

Deleting all table data

Delete selected records

A family friendly video store

4

Best Practices for Writing SQL

How do you ensure that the SQL scripts you write will be easy to understand for anyone who needs to read them? This chapter will cover approaches you can leverage to ensure that your code clearly conveys your intent, is readable by others and follows best practices.

Convey your intent

How to convey our intent

Clarify the intent of this query

Fix this query - intent

Write readable code

How to make code easier to read

Make this query easier to read - Part I

Make this query easier to read - Part II

Avoid common mistakes

What are the don'ts of writing SQL code?

Apply best practices to your code

Applying SQL to Real-World Problems

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*4.8

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Roberto

5 hours ago

BAYLEY

yesterday

Kuan-Pei

2 days ago

Volodymyr

3 days ago

Ivan

3 days ago

spencer

4 days ago

A nice simple review of SQL basics,

Roberto

BAYLEY

Kuan-Pei

FAQs

What SQL knowledge do I need before enrolling?

You should have completed courses on SQL fundamentals, intermediate SQL, data manipulation, and joining data. Comfort with subqueries, aggregations, and multi-table joins is expected.

What kind of database will I practice with in this course?

You will work with a database for a fictional movie rental company, which is large and complex enough to simulate real business challenges.

Will I learn how to create Entity Relationship Diagrams?

Yes. You will learn to explore system tables to discover database structure and then create an Entity Relationship Diagram to map connections between multiple tables.

Does this course teach SQL best practices for readability?

Yes. The final chapter covers approaches for writing clearly structured, well-commented SQL that conveys intent and is easy for teammates to read and maintain.

What data management tasks are included beyond querying?

You will learn to create tables and views, update existing data, and delete records when necessary, going beyond simple SELECT statements into full data management.

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