Weekly Content Tracker

The main material for this class is the textbook Getting Started with SQL and Databases by Mark Simon, which is available for free using the Hekman Library. Each week, we will cover specific chapters and sections from the book, along with additional resources and exercises.

Week 1 — Starting with SQL (Ch. 1)¶

First contact: reading data, selecting columns, filtering rows, ordering results.

#	Topic	Subtopic	Status
1	DQL	SELECT — Basic statement	✅
2	DQL	SELECT — Specific columns	✅
3	DQL	SELECT — Calculated columns & Aliases	✅
4	DQL	WHERE — Filtering rows	✅
5	DQL	ORDER BY — ASC / DESC	✅
6	DQL	DISTINCT rows	✅
7	DQL	Comments in SQL	✅

Week 2 — Database Structure and Design (Ch. 2)¶

Understanding how data is organized before writing serious queries.

#	Topic	Subtopic	Status
8	DDL	What is a database	✅
9	DDL	Tables and their structure	✅
10	DDL	Normalized tables	✅
11	DDL	Multiple values / relationships	✅

Week 3 — Filtering Data (Ch. 3)¶

Deep dive into WHERE: NULLs, data types in filters, logical operators, wildcards.

#	Topic	Subtopic	Status
12	DQL	WHERE — NULL handling (IS NULL / IS NOT NULL)	✅
13	DQL	WHERE — Filtering numbers	✅
14	DQL	WHERE — Filtering strings & case sensitivity	✅
15	Functions	String functions in WHERE	✅
16	DQL	WHERE — Filtering dates	✅
17	Operators	Logical — AND / OR / NOT	✅
18	Operators	IN operator	✅
19	DQL	WHERE — Wildcard matches (LIKE)	✅

Week 4 — Ordering Results & Calculating Values (Ch. 4 & 5)¶

Sorting deeply, limiting results, and computing new values inside queries.

#	Topic	Subtopic	Status
20	DQL	ORDER BY — Multiple columns	✅
21	DQL	ORDER BY — NULL behavior	✅
22	Data Types	Data types and sort behavior	✅
23	DQL	LIMIT / OFFSET / Paging	✅
24	DQL	SELECT — Calculated columns (deep)	✅
25	Functions	NULL functions (COALESCE, NULLIF, etc.)	✅
26	Operators	Arithmetic operators	✅
27	Functions	Numeric functions (ROUND, FLOOR, CEIL…)	✅
28	Functions	Datetime functions	✅
29	Functions	String functions (UPPER, TRIM, SUBSTR…)	✅
30	DQL	Subqueries (intro)	✅
31	DQL	CASE expression	✅
32	Data Types	CAST — Type conversion	✅
33	DDL	Targets — VIEW (CREATE VIEW)	✅

Week 5 — Joining Tables (Ch. 6)¶

Conceptual peak: combining multiple tables with all join types.

#	Topic	Subtopic	Status
34	DQL	FROM — How a JOIN works	✅
35	DQL	FROM — INNER JOIN	✅
36	DQL	FROM — LEFT OUTER JOIN	✅
37	DQL	FROM — RIGHT OUTER JOIN	✅
38	DQL	FROM — FULL OUTER JOIN	✅
39	DQL	FROM — CROSS JOIN	✅
40	DQL	Table aliases	✅
41	DQL	Joining many tables	✅
42	DQL	Self-join	✅

Week 6 — Aggregating Data (Ch. 7)¶

Counting, summarizing, grouping, and filtering grouped results.

#	Topic	Subtopic	Status
43	DQL	COUNT — Counting rows and values	🔄
44	DQL	DISTINCT in aggregates	🔄
45	Functions	Numeric aggregates (SUM, AVG, MIN, MAX)	🔄
46	DQL	GROUP BY	🔄
47	DQL	GROUP BY — Multiple tables	🔄
48	DQL	HAVING — Filtering grouped results	🔄
49	DQL	CTE — Common Table Expressions (intro)	🔄

Week 7 — Working with Tables & Set Operations (Ch. 8 & 9)¶

DDL, DML, access control, and advanced set operations.

#	Topic	Subtopic	Status
50	Data Types	Column data types (full overview)	⬜
51	DDL	Targets — TABLE (CREATE TABLE)	⬜
52	DDL	Targets — CONSTRAINTS (NOT NULL, UNIQUE, DEFAULT, CHECK)	⬜
53	DDL	Targets — CONSTRAINTS — Foreign Keys	⬜
54	DDL	Targets — INDEX	⬜
55	DML	INSERT	⬜
56	DML	DELETE	⬜
57	DML	UPDATE	⬜
58	DDL	Operations — ALTER TABLE	⬜
59	DCL	Security — GRANT / REVOKE (intro)	⬜
60	DQL	Set operations — UNION	⬜
61	DQL	Set operations — INTERSECT	⬜
62	DQL	Set operations — EXCEPT / MINUS	⬜

Progress Summary¶

Week	Theme	Book Chapter(s)	Total Topics	✅ Covered	🔄 In Progress	⬜ Not Yet
1	Starting with SQL	Ch. 1	7	7	0	0
2	Database Structure	Ch. 2	4	4	0	0
3	Filtering Data	Ch. 3	8	8	0	0
4	Ordering & Calculating	Ch. 4–5	14	14	0	0
5	Joining Tables	Ch. 6	9	9	0	0
6	Aggregating Data	Ch. 7	7	0	7	0
7	Tables, DML & Set Ops	Ch. 8–9	13	0	0	13
Total			62	42	7	13