Fast Track to SQL is a 2-day course that provides Application Developers with the foundation critical to any dynamic Web application — database and SQL knowledge. This hands-on course provides students useable knowledge on Structured Query Language — the language of relational databases. It also extends that knowledge to database design basics, choosing the correct database for your Web application, and useful interface design on the Web.

Topics
· Understanding Database design basics
· Painting complex queries using Macromedia’s query builder
· Comparing and contrasting connection strategies
· Using the SQL Data Manipulation Language
· Implementing interfaces to data on the Web
· Introducing stored procedures

Objectives
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
· Understand database terminology and articulate your site's database design
· Retrieve complex data sets from a database
· Insert, delete and update data in tables
· Group, order and calculate computed values on data in tables
· Use the built-in query builder to quickly "paint" complex queries
· Understand, compare and contrast connection strategies
· Describe performance-enhancing data interfaces for use on the Web

Prerequisites
To gain the most from this class you should have:
· Basic understanding of programming concepts
· Experience using Windows operating system

Course Outline
Unit 1: Introducing Fast Track to SQL
· Understanding the course prerequisites
· Using the course format
· Browsing the course outline
Unit 2: Introduction to Relational Databases
· Define the terms used in relational database design
· Understand why duplicate data is bad and hard to manage
· Define a relational database
· Contrast data architectures
· Describe the basic concepts of relational technology
· Logical vs. Physical Data Modeling
· Understand Entity/Relationship diagrams
· Describe the basics of normalization
Unit 3: Selecting Data
· Overview of SQL Viewer
· Using the basic SELECT statement
· Using a column wildcard
· Using owner and table prefixes
· Specifying textual vs numeric data types
· Filtering rows with the WHERE clause
· Using comparison operators: =, <, >, and <>
· Using Null
· Understanding Nulls and inequality
· Using compound WHERE clauses with AND and OR
· Using IN and NOT IN to shorten SQL queries
· Using LIKE for partial pattern matching
Unit 4: Creating JOIN statements
· Describe join types
· Creating recordsets from multiple tables using an inner join
· Using primary and foreign keys in performing joins
· Joining tables using ANSI-92 JOIN syntax
· Joining 3 or more tables in a single statement
· Using filters with joins
Unit 5: Changing database contents with INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE
· Adding data to tables with the INSERT statement
· Introducing the UPDATE statement
· Using a filter
· Using the DELETE statement
· Flagging records deleted as an alternative to DELETE
Unit 6: Enhancing SELECT statements
· Ordering data
· Expressions in SELECT
· Renaming tables and columns with aliases
· Selecting computed columns (expressions)
· Character strings in queries (hardcoding string output in query)
· Aggregating values
· Getting row counts
· Minimum in a column: min()
· Maximum in a column: max()
· Average of a column: avg()
· Sum a column: sum()
· Grouping data
· Grouping query results with the GROUP BY clause
· Aggregates and groups (count, min, max, avg, sum)
· Using the HAVING clause
· Using positional notation in GROUP BY
Unit 7: Connecting to a RDBMS
· Understand the Client/Server model for databases
· Basic concept of database users and permissions
· Discuss how database drivers work (queries and result sets)
· Creating an ODBC Data source
· Comparing performance (Access & MSDE)
· Query Painters
Unit 8: Introduction to Stored Procedures
· Description of stored procedures
· Benefits of stored procedures
· Incorporating procedural logic into stored procedures
· Examples of stored procedures for SQL Server and Oracle
Unit 9: Strategies for Web Database Access
· Understand limitations of the Web environment
· Discuss strategies for limiting data
· Next-n interfaces
· Limiting to n rows returned
· Performing dynamic searches
· Increasing selectivity using search criteria