70-461 Session 4: Querying Microsoft SQL Server (T-SQL)

Using TSQL, merge databasets together, create procedures & incorporate error handling. SQL Server 2012-2017, inc. 70-761

What you'll learn:

• Combine and compare datasets using UNION, UNION ALL, INTERSECT and EXCEPT
• Understand the difference between and use of CASE, ISNULL and COALESCE
• MERGE two tables together, taking different actions if similar rows exist in both tables than if they don't.
• Create parameterised PROCEDUREs, allowing you to store multiple commands together for later use.
• EXECUTE those procedures, and add OUTPUT parameters to obtain RESULTs.
• Introduce error checking with TRY, CATCH, THROW and more!

If you are in UfB, welcome.

If you are not, don't buy this course. Instead, please look at my 70-461 Session 1-7: Querying Microsoft SQL Server (SQL code) course instead, which includes this course and 6 other courses.

This course is the foundation for the Microsoft Certificate 70-461: "Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012".

In Session 1, we learned all about dates, strings and number data types, and in Session 2 we constructed SELECT queries, JOINed multiple tables together and used DML commands, and in Session 3 we created views, constraints and triggers to encapsulate language and improve security.

We will further encapsulate our routines by creating procedures, allowing us to EXECUTE parameterised commands with just one statement, and we'll add some error handling with TRY, CATCH and THROW.

We'll also combine datasets together, by looking at UNION and UNION ALL, INTERSECT and EXCEPT, CASE, ISNULL and Coalesce, and the mighty MERGE statement. By doing this, we will complete objectives 11, 12, 13 and parts of 6 and 18 from the 70-461 exam.

No prior knowledge other than what we covered in Sessions 1 to 3 is required. However, prior experience with Excel or Access would be beneficial.

There are regular quizzes to help you remember the information.

Once finished, you will know what how to write procedures, add error handling, and combine datasets together, and we'll have expanded on our current knowledge of T-SQL.