SQL Courses and Certifications

The SQL standard is based on Relational Modeling – a way of structuring business data and getting it into tables. In the thinking behind SQL, each command has its precise function and place.

We have chosen to create a series of SQL courses based on the standard, which introduce this way of thinking and the core commands. The content of these courses can therefore be applied directly to virtually any database server.

The participant can then choose whether to use the commands that each database server has implemented outside the SQL standard.

We have chosen to start by introducing the most basic commands in the standard. Next, we focus on the mindset, and with it the strategies, for both reading and writing complex SQL.

In addition, there are courses in advanced SQL and in the database design mindset. These courses are independent of the database server vendor (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM Db2, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, etc.).

We have created a course aimed specifically at the SQL dialect of Microsoft SQL Server, “T-SQL”.

Relational databases are the world's most widely used way to store and retrieve large amounts of data.

They are built on a way of thinking that involves identifying: 1. The business's entities (people, products, invoices, widgets), 2. How they are identified in the real world (Primary Key), 3. How they relate to one another (relationships).

In practice, relational databases have proven to be very strong for common types of data (accounting, personnel records, product catalogs, data collection, etc.)

SQL grew out of the thinking behind relational database design. Historically, the circle around Edgar Codd developed SQL from mathematical set theory. The basic syntax of SQL has hardly changed in the last 20-25 years.

SQL can’t be read “from top to bottom”; instead, it follows a logical way of thinking. We believe that understanding the thinking behind SQL is the most important thing when you learn to program in SQL.

SuperUsers offers the courses SU-240 and SU-241, which give you the basic way of thinking behind SQL.