Our focus is to teach the syntax early, and then spend time solving business problems with SQL. In order to tackle the primary objective (thinking in SQL), we cover:

• syntax of the basic constructs (select, aggregate functions (sum, count, etc.), builtin functions (convert, substring, etc.)
• various datatypes, various types of expressions (value expressions, logical expressions)
• tri-valued logic and NULL
• filtering data with DISTINCT and WHERE
• joining tables (2-table and multi-table joins, inner and outer joins)
• sub-selects (selects as where-criteria, selects as members of the select list) aggregates supported by grouping
• advanced queries, such as cross-tabulations using select

We use the knowledge developed in the first part of the class to tackle "hard queries" -- business-based questions solved with select. For example:

• "write a query that shows all pairs of employees who have the exact same skills", or
• "write a query to show employee last name, first name, school name, the count of employees who went to the same school, and the count of classmates who are both younger and making more money than this employee"

To handle some of the "hard queries", we use the T-SQL extensions of SQL Server. These allow a person to write programs that contain standard if-then-else and looping logic, combined with SQL. An additional programmatic SQL construct, the "cursor", is also introduced and used. We explore the creation and use of temporary tables, and write small programs to solve problems that can't be solved with a single SQL statement.