Ultimate Introduction to SQL Online Bundle, 10 Certificate Courses

There are 12 units of study

Module 1: Database Basics, and Structures Query Language

In our first lesson, we'll explore the basic structure and history of relational databases. Then, you'll understand what SQL is and how it is used with a relational database.

Module 2: Sorting and Retrieving Data

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use SQL to sort and retrieve data from tables. We'll talk about important query terms that enable you to communicate with your database, as well as syntax rules that will enable you to create clear and understandable queries while avoiding system generated errors.

Module 3: Filtering Data

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use SQL to filter retrieved data. You'll practice sorting retrieved data using the ORDER BY clause. You'll be able to sort single and multiple columns, and you'll know how to specify sort directions such as ascending and descending order. You'll also learn additional query terms that will help you customize your SQL queries.

Module 4: Calculated Fields and Functions

Today, you'll learn how to reformat retrieved data with calculated fields and functions. You'll also learn how to create alternate names for columns and you'll discover the secret behind merging columns with the concatenation symbol.

Module 5: Summarizing and Grouping Data

In this lesson, we'll discuss gathering significant statistics from data using aggregate functions. You'll also learn how to use the GROUP BY clause in conjunction with an aggregate function to gather important statistics from a table. Then you'll find out how to use the HAVING clause in conjunction with an aggregate function to filter groups of data from a table.

Module 6: Working with Subqueries

Today's lesson is all about subqueries. You'll learn how to extract data from multiple tables simultaneously, how to use calculated fields in subqueries, how to use the DATEPART () function in subqueries, and how to use aggregate functions in subqueries. Then we'll talk about qualification—a technique used to combine a table name with a column name so there's no question about which table the column name refers to.

Module 7: Creating and Using Table Joins

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use joins to gather information from two or more tables simultaneously. You'll learn how to use the inner join, self-join, natural join, and the outer join. Then you'll become familiar with the term Cartesian product.

Module 8: Inserting, Updating, and Deleting Data

In today's lesson, you'll discover how to manipulate data using the INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. You'll learn how to insert partial and complete rows into a table, and how to update information already stored in a table. You find out how to transfer data to a new table, how to transfer data to an existing table, and how to delete rows from a table.

Module 9: Table Creation and Maintenance

Today, you'll find out how SQL can be used to create and maintain tables. You'll learn how to use the CREATE TABLE keywords to create a table, then we'll discuss how to use the ALTER TABLE, DROP TABLE, ADD COLUMN, and DROP COLUMN keywords to manipulate the tables themselves. You'll also find out how to define a primary key, data type, and field size.

Module 10: Creating and Understanding Views

In this lesson, you'll learn how and why views are used in SQL. You'll learn how to create and use views to simplify complex queries, summarize data, and manipulate data stored in tables. I'll also teach you how to update and delete a view.

Module 11: Understanding Transaction Processing, Constraints, and Indexes

Today, you'll learn how transaction processing, constraints, and indexes are implemented in SQL. You'll work through an example that demonstrates how a transaction is created, how constraints are used in the creation of a table, and how indexes are used to improve the performance of a database by optimizing the speed at which queries are processed.

Module 12: Understanding Stored Procedures, Triggers, and Cursors

In our last lesson, you'll find out how stored procedures, triggers, and cursors are implemented in SQL. You'll see how stored procedures are created and executed, as well as how triggers work. You'll also see how cursors are declared in SQL.

There are 12 units of study

 Getting Started

In this first lesson, you'll learn whom this class is for and what it's all about. We'll get hands-on right away, creating a folder and adjusting some settings in your operating system and editor so you're ready to start creating a website. We'll discuss the basics of what HTML5 and CSS3 are all about, as well as why you'll want to learn to use them. And finally, you'll learn to save time by creating an HTML5 page template that you can use as the starting point for each new page you create in this course and later on your own.

Styling Your Website

Today, you'll grow to appreciate the beauty and practicality of using CSS to style your entire website. You'll discover how CSS lets you create design elements that give your site a consistent look, feel, and unique identity. And if you ever decide to change something in your styling, you won't have to go digging through all the pages individually to make changes. You just change your style sheet in one place, and all the pages in the site update instantly and automatically.

Styling Backgrounds

Background colors, photos, textures, patterns, and gradients can really add some pizzazz to your website. In today's lesson, you'll learn to do them all, and you'll have a lot of fun doing so.

Borders, Corners, and Shadows

In today's lesson, you'll learn how to add some real professional polish to your design with borders, rounded corners, and drop shadows. And better yet, they're easy to do, thanks to some simple CSS properties.

Styling Text

Today, you'll learn about the many ways you can style your text with CSS, including fonts, text shadows, and more. We'll start with an overview of the primary tags for text markup in HTML. Then we'll look at the many properties CSS offers for making your text look great!

Spice It Up With Pictures

Pictures add a lot of visual interest to any website, and in today's lesson, you'll learn all about using pictures in your site. We'll start with an overview of the types of pictures you can use, and we'll go over how to insert them using HTML tags. Then we'll talk about ways you can float, position, and size pictures using CSS

Mastering Style Classes and Link Styles

In today's lesson, you'll learn about style classes and links. Style classes are a great tool for defining styles that you can use freely wherever you want throughout your site. They can be a real boon to your creativity and a real time-saver for managing your styles. You'll also learn about pseudo-classes, which are a special type of class for styling links and mouse-over effects. And as an added bonus, you'll learn some advanced techniques for links including opening pages in a new window, using jump links within a page, adding tooltips to your links, using pictures as links, and creating email links.

Fun With Sound and Video

Nothing brings a site to life better than sound and video. In today's lesson, you'll learn all the newest and most modern techniques for playing sounds and showing videos on your site. You'll learn the secrets of embedding YouTube videos on your pages so you don't have to upload video files to your own site. And you'll learn about all the modern file formats and HTML5 tags for embedding sound and music into your pages without using YouTube or any other site.

Styling Tables

HTML tables are the perfect tool for displaying information in rows and columns, like tables you see in print. In today's lesson, you'll learn techniques for styling tables with traditional CSS, as well as brand new CSS3 techniques that really make tables shine with minimal coding!

Mastering the CSS Box Model

Getting control of the size and location of things and the gaps between them can be a real challenge for Web designers. Most of the mystery and frustration that designers experience stems from not understanding the CSS Box Model, which defines how things behave and provides a rich set of tools for managing widths, heights, margins, and padding. Today's lesson is all about solving the mysteries and overcoming the frustrations by exposing the secrets of the ever-important CSS Box Model.

Creating Modern Page Layouts

Modern business websites often use page layouts that include a header, footer, sidebar columns, and a navigation bar. Historically, these layouts were done using HTML tables or div tags. Now and in the future, we'll be using a new set of layout tags in HTML5 to define our layout sections. In today's lesson, you'll learn what those tags are, how to make them work in new and older browsers alike, and some professional-grade techniques for styling them with CSS.

Making a Multi-column Layout

Today's lesson will be all about adding side columns to your layout, be it a left column, a right column, or both left and right columns. As an added bonus, we'll add a vertical navigation bar to a side column with the links large enough that they're easy to work with a mouse, as well as a fingertip or stylus on a mobile touch screen.

There are 12 units of study 

Getting Started With Just BASIC

For many people, the prospect of learning how to become a computer programmer is more than a little scary. But in this first lesson, you’ll learn that you don't have to be a computer genius to learn how to program. I'll begin by going through a brief history of the evolution of computer programming. We'll cover some basic programming concepts and terms, and then we'll zero in specifically on Just BASIC, the programming language that we'll use throughout the course. We'll then download and install Just BASIC, and at the conclusion of the lesson, you'll create and execute your first Just BASIC program!

Creating Programs With Just Basic

In order to work with any programming language, you need access to a set of software tools. These tools include such things as a code editor, a compiler or interpreter, and a source code debugger. In this lesson, I'll introduce you to the resources that Just BASIC provides. I'll show you how you'll use these tools to develop software applications. We'll also spend some time getting comfortable with Just BASIC’s code editor. You'll learn how to configure it to suit your personal preferences and work habits. Finally, for some great practice, we'll create your first actual computer game: the Legend of Mighty Molly.

Creating Windows for Graphical User Interfaces

We’ll begin this lesson by exploring how to create the fundamental building blocks of Windows application GUIs. You'll learn how to create different types of windows, including regular windows, text windows, graphics windows, and dialog windows. We’ll also cover some of the finer details of creating windows, such as how to set foreground and background colors and how to set font attributes. We’ll close out the lesson by creating the Math Madness computer game, which will give you some great practice in working with GUIs.

Adding Controls to Windows

In Lesson 3, we learned how to create windows. Most desktop application user interfaces are more than just windows, however. They also consist of a collection of interface controls, such as buttons and text boxes. So controls are what we'll concentrate on in this lesson. Just BASIC allows you to create many different types of controls. We'll look at each of Just BASIC’s controls in detail, and then we'll examine each one’s programming syntax. And, as always, I'll have a cool application project for you to develop: the Lottery Picker application. By the end of this lesson, you should feel confident in your ability to create attractive, user-friendly graphical interfaces.

Working With Controls and FreeForm-J

In this lesson, we’re going to continue our exploration of GUI elements. We’ll first talk about how to fine-tune your controls to make them do exactly what you want them to do. Then you’ll learn how to build application menus, an integral part of many applications. Next, we’ll dig into FreeForm-J, the powerful Just BASIC application that allows you to visually design your GUIs. We’ll wrap things up with a quick look at Just BASIC’s built-in dialogs, prebuilt tools that can communicate with users and even collect small amounts of information. We’ll also work on another project application: the Family Photo Album. This application will test all that you’ve learned so far about GUI elements.

Working With Variables and Arrays

The subject for this lesson is the retrieval and storage of data in computer memory. Specifically, we’ll be digging into how to store and retrieve individual pieces of data in variables. We’ll also take a look at how to store groups of data using arrays, including the rules to follow when naming variables and arrays. Another important topic is the different types of data that can be stored, along with how to convert numbers to strings and vice versa. To test your newfound knowledge, we’ll create a computer application called the Ask Mustafa game.

Making Decisions With Conditional Logic

To create complex applications, a computer program needs a way of evaluating different values to determine a logical direction in which to proceed. As programmers, we do this with conditional programming statements that use mathematical, comparison, and logical operators. That’s what we’ll focus on in this lesson. With conditional logic, you can create applications that react differently depending on the data that they receive. This provides an interactive user experience and programs that are adaptive enough to handle different types of situations. To illustrate how conditional logic works, we’ll wrap up the lesson with a project application called the Karaoke Night game.

Using Loops to Process Data

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create and work with loops. Loops are code blocks that repeat a series of programming statements over and over again. Using loops, you can develop applications that can process large amounts of data using a minimum number of programming statements. We’ll look at how to use a number of different types of loops, and I’ll also explain the types of situations that each type of loop is best for. By the end of this lesson, you should feel confident enough in your knowledge of loops to create the Guess My Number game.

Functions and Subroutines

The larger your applications become, the more complicated your program code becomes. One effective way of making your programs easier to create and maintain is to break them up into small parts, called procedures. In this lesson, you'll learn how to work with two types of procedures: subroutines and functions. You'll learn how to pass data to your subroutines and functions for processing. You'll also learn how to return data back from functions. This lesson’s application project is the BASIC BlackJack game, which will give you the opportunity to practice working with subroutines and functions.

Working With Text Files

Like most other programming languages, Just BASIC allows you to interact with your computer’s file system. You can retrieve information about your computer's drives, and you can open files, read from them, write to them, and close them. As such, you can create reports, documents, and log files, so that's what we'll focus on in this lesson. The application for lesson is the Tic Tac Toe game. It’s a project that will exercise many of the programming muscles that you’ve developed throughout the course so far.

Working With Sound and Graphics

It’s no secret that graphical user interfaces provide users with a stimulating interactive experience. Some programming languages, including Just BASIC, allow you to take things a step further by integrating sound and graphics into desktop applications, so that’s what we’ll focus on in this lesson. You’ll learn how to draw custom graphics and how to incorporate WAV and MIDI sounds into your Windows applications. We’ll also work on a new project application that should be a lot of fun: the Slot Machine game.

Debugging Your Applications

In this final lesson, you'll learn how to track down and deal with the errors that inevitably crop up when you develop a new software application. Program errors can occur for any number of reasons, so I'll show you the fundamental steps for identifying and correcting them. We'll talk about the development of error handling procedures, and we'll also investigate using Just BASIC’s debugger as a means of keeping an eye on the internal operation of your programs. Your final project application will be to develop a computer version of that old classic, the Hangman game. On the surface, it seems like a simple program, but it will put all of your new Just BASIC skills to the test.

There are 12 units of study

Video Technologies

In this first lesson, I'll take you through the details of monitors—standard desktop and projectors—and video cards. You'll learn how they work and function together to produce the display you see.

Installing and Maintaining Video

In Lesson 2, I continue the discussion on video from Lesson 1. I start with video card processors and memory, then go through details about installation and configuration, including 3-D. You'll finish up with troubleshooting video.

Sound

In Lesson 3, I'll delve into the details of sound. We will explore how sound works in a digital environment and then examine all the components that work to record and play back sound.

Portable Computing Devices

Today we'll examine the many features of portable computers. We'll explore the many ways to expand the capabilities of portables, from connecting to external monitors to docking stations.

Maintaining and Upgrading Portables

In today's lesson, we'll cover three essential areas of knowledge for competent PC techs. You'll learn how to manage and maintain portable PCs. The lesson discusses in detail the processes for upgrading and repairing laptops and then finishes with lots of information on troubleshooting problems specific for portable PCs.

Wired Networking

In Lesson 6, I'll introduce you to wired networking. We'll cover topics such as network hardware, topologies, and software. I'll teach you about Ethernet, coaxial and fiber cabling technologies, and more. Let's connect!

Wireless Networking

Today we'll explore wireless technologies, starting with the basics, such as components, software, modes, security, speed, and range. You'll learn about wireless networking standards, such as radio wave and infrared networks. We'll finish the lesson with a look at installing, configuring, and troubleshooting wireless networks.

Networking in Windows

In Lesson 8, we'll delve deeply into the software side of networking. You'll learn details about TCP/IP, the primary protocol suite used today. I'll cover Windows-specific details as well, such as sharing and accessing shared resources. We'll finish the lesson with troubleshooting network-specific problems.

The Internet

Get ready to take the networking covered in previous lessons and expand it to fill the Internet. We'll start with a broad stroke on how the Internet works and then examine the various connections types to get onto the Internet. We'll wrap the lesson with a discussion of common Internet software tools.

Local Security

In today's lesson, we'll analyze security procedures for local area networks. I'll show you the many threats faced and then dive into access-control techniques. We'll hit on topics like data classification, compliance, and reporting procedures. It's more fun than it sounds from this description!

Network Security

Today, we'll jump into aspects of security in the big bad world, notably, discussing threats from outside your network. We'll look at malicious software types and how to deal with them. Then we'll turn to protections you should establish networkwide. The knowledge in this lesson is invaluable to you as both a tech and for the CompTIA A+ certification exams.

Mobile Devices and Convergence

In this our final lesson, you'll complete the trio of CompTIA A+ exam prep courses, focusing on the latest computing devices: mobile devices. You'll learn about the features and capabilities of smartphones and tablets. I'll also explain configuration techniques and describe best practices for securing mobile devices.

There are 12 units of study

Introduction and Java Review

Now that you've done some Java programming, you may be wondering, "What's next?" In this first lesson, you'll get a taste of what you'll learn before the course is over. To make sure everyone is on the same page, we'll do a short review of the Java skills you should already have—this will get your wheels turning if you haven't worked with Java in a while! You'll also find out about a few different development environments you can use to create and run your own Java programs.

Arrays, Loops, and Using Multple Classes

The array is one of the most commonly used data structures in any programming language. In this lesson, we'll go over how arrays work, including their internal structure. You'll find out how to create arrays, how to store and access data in them, and how to process them efficiently using loops. Along the way, you'll also learn the difference between a class that's a complete program and one that isn't. You'll see how to write classes that use other classes in their processing, which is helpful when you're working with a lot of information.

File Input and Output

Computers can do an incredible amount of work, but it's often all for nothing if you can't save the results after the program finishes. That's where data files come into play. Today's lesson shows you how to read and write computer data files using Java. This process takes place many times every day in all kinds of programs, so it's a very useful and important one to understand.

Inheritance and Class Hierarchies

Have you ever wondered exactly what the big deal is about object-oriented programming (OOP)? Why does is matter whether a language is object-oriented or not? In this lesson, we'll look at exactly what object orientation means to Java through the topic of inheritance. One of the primary features of an OOP language is how its classes inherit features from other classes in the class hierarchy. You'll find out how Java's class hierarchy is organized, and you'll learn how to use the different types of classes (interfaces, abstract classes, and concrete classes) to your advantage.

Stand-Alone GUI Applications

We'll explore Java's GUI tools in today's lesson. Just about every program we use on computers today has a graphical user interface, or GUI. That just means the program appears in a window with menus, icons, buttons, and so on. Java has hundreds of GUI tools we can use to build our own applications to run in any windowed operating system that supports Java (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, among others). You'll learn how to set up a stand-alone application using Java's GUI tools, including labels, buttons, dialogs, and more.

Layouts and Multiple GUI Components

Today you'll continue learning about Java's GUI capabilities. You'll explore several ways that Java can organize multiple GUI components in a window, and you'll find out how to split windows into smaller areas called panels, which you can organize in different ways. You'll see how to set up Java's scroll bars in a window or part of a window so that users can scroll up, down, left, and right through the display.

GUI Menus

What do almost all modern-day programs have in common? They have menus. Menus are probably the best-known and most widely used GUI programming feature. In this lesson, you'll learn how to create menus using Java's menu bar, menu, and menu item components. You'll be able to create as many menus in an application as you need, each with all the menu items and submenus necessary to perform the task you're programming.

A Working GUI Application: Part 1

By this time, you'll have spent three lessons learning about different Java GUI programming techniques and tools. Today, you'll learn how to put the pieces together into a complete, reasonably complex Java application. You'll see how to combine menu options, graphics, check boxes, radio buttons, and text entry fields into a windowed program that can actually perform a useful task: It allows someone to order a pizza! (How much more useful can it get?)

A Working GUI Application: Part 2

Today, we'll take what we started in Lesson 8, where you learned how to design and build a GUI interface to order a pizza, and we'll make it functional. You already have all the GUI components displayed nicely in the window, so now you'll learn how to make your program gather all the data from the different components in the window, and then put that information together into a useful pizza order. (I'm afraid it won't actually deliver the pizza, though.) You'll get an idea of what you can create with Java's GUI capabilities.

Java Collections: Part 1

Most programmers don't write computer programs to deal with individual data items. Usually, they write programs to deal with groups of items. In this lesson, you'll learn all about Java's collection classes, a group of data structures designed to work with many items at once. You'll discover the difference between lists, queues, sets, maps, and other types of collections. We'll explore how to work with a list to load a group of items from a file into a list, and how to display items from the list in a GUI window. Along the way, you'll learn another useful technique in GUI programming: how to use Java's file chooser dialog to select a file to open and process.

Java Collections: Part 2

To explore more of Java's collections, today we'll continue working on the program we began in Lesson 10. You'll find out how to navigate through a list (forward and backward), displaying each list item as you go. You'll also see how to set up a window with multiple display formats, and switch between them by clicking tabs that describe the different views. You'll also learn how to create items that Java can compare, even if Java doesn't know the details of what is in the items. You'll use that capability to build a list and sort its items in a specified sequence. That's a very useful and important capability when you're dealing with large numbers of items.

Java Collections: Part 3

In our last lesson, we'll delve even deeper into the topic of collections. (You can see that it's a large and important subject!) You'll find out how to use maps, which are Java collections that let you store and retrieve data items quickly based on a unique data element of each item (its key). Think of looking up a telephone number in a large telephone book like New York City's. Finding a single number would be impossible if the data weren't properly organized. We'll see how to use the same type of search to quickly find any data item we need in a collection. And while we're doing that, you'll also learn a bit more about Java's other features, including Java's wrapper class, which is one more important data feature of the Java language that you'll use quite often. By the end of this lesson, you'll be amazed at what you're able to do with Java!

There are 12 units of study

Networking Basics

The first Internet connection was made at UCLA in September 1969 with a thick gray cable between two computers. Times sure have changed! Today the Internet serves millions of e-mails and Web pages every few minutes, connecting millions of users from all over the world. And today, wireless networking is the hottest networking technology around. People who use wireless networks can check e-mail from their favorite coffee shop, surf the Internet from their couch, and even get instant messages on their Internet-connected cellular phone. Learning how all those wireless networks operate is as interesting as the Internet itself. In this first lesson, you'll learn about basic network facts and operat