Advanced SQL Practice: Schema Changes

9mAdvanced2025-01-24

Authors

Scott Simpson

Creating Technology Courses as a Senior Staff Author at LinkedIn

Course details

In this course, Scott Simpson explores the intricacies of using SQL to manipulate and alter the schema of existing databases. Learn how to add, modify, and remove columns efficiently, expand field lengths, and update data types by completing practical code challenges. Discover how to manage and structure data for a text-based chat application. Gain hands-on experience with SQL commands such as ALTER TABLE, CREATE TABLE, and UPDATE statements, as well as techniques to ensure data integrity and correct functionality. Use the interactive format of the course to test your solutions and immediately see the results in a practical learning experience. This course equips you with the necessary skills to maintain and optimize existing databases effectively.

Learning objectives
Apply real-world task requests to an existing complex database.
Explain how schema changes in SQL work, and what considerations to keep in mind when modifying a database schema.
Modify database schemas safely.

Skills covered

SQLDatabase AdministrationDatabase DevelopmentDatabase ManagementData AnalysisProgramming LanguagesData ScienceBusiness Analysis and StrategyBusiness Software and ToolsOpen SourceSoftware DevelopmentOne-Off

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Let's practice schema changes
02 - Tour of CoderPad

1. Schema Changes

03 - CoderPad solution - Update the Messages table schema
04 - CoderPad solution - Add a ConversationsTitles table
05 - CoderPad solution - Alter the Reactions table
06 - CoderPad solution - Expand the size of the message text field
07 - CoderPad solution - Remove the topic field from the Conversations table

Conclusion

08 - Next steps in advanced SQL