Here’s How I Started Creating SQL Reports

Once upon a time, there was a girl who was just starting her adventure with learning SQL. As a marketer, one of her tasks was writing reports. Previously, she used Excel, a calculator, and written notes to prepare the reports her boss required. One day, it turned out that she could do her job much faster and easier. That was the day she read about SQL reports for the first time.

I am that girl.

When I started, I only knew the basics of SQL. I had great difficulty finding the time to take new courses. In my example, the best motivators were some additional duties at work. The more reports I had to prepare, the more I wanted to automate their creation process. And so I decided to do the Creating SQL Reports course that I read about on LearnSQL.com.

Let me tell you how I coped and what was a challenge (because there were at least a few of them) in learning SQL reporting.

This SQL Reports Course Is a Must

I can tell you at least a few reasons why I don’t regret taking LearnSQL.com’s SQL reporting course. If you already know the basics of SQL, taking an additional course will help solidify what you already know..

But if you are just starting or have no idea of what SQL is, then I think you should get to know SQL Basics before trying to learn reporting. Or take the SQL from A to Z track if you are hungry for complete database knowledge! SQL is really worth learning. Start now and find out what you can do after finishing a course.

SQL reporting is extremely useful when you work in sales, marketing, IT, HR, and other areas. When I started this course, I didn’t fully understand how much data I could extract from the database. The course was surprising and broadened my SQL horizons – although not without nerves, stress, and moments of doubt.

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Why Learn SQL Reporting?

Reporting using SQL is much simpler and less time-consuming than preparing reports manually or using spreadsheets. If you've already taken an SQL course (even if it's just Basic SQL), you already have a solid foundation to make your work easier. And you can impress your boss with the detailed data you can extract from the company DBMS.

Data is your company's capital. You need to know how to work with databases if you’re going to profit from that capital. Companies rely on data –often contained in reports – to make strategic and operational decisions.

This is why you should start learning SQL reporting: to create specific, detailed, and sophisticated reports that will help your company grow.

Why Is SQL Reporting So Divine?

Now, I would like you to imagine that you are an analyst in an interactive agency. The end of the quarter is coming.

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I know we still have some time until then, but I need you to stress out for a moment. Did that work? Great! I promise it's only for a little while!

So the quarter is ending soon and half of your team was unable to turn up for work for various reasons. You have 10 reports to prepare for 10 different customers, each with different data.

One customer wants you to provide a sales report, another wants one on advertising activities and the effects of an online campaign, and the third needs a list of user activities on their website. You can do this in Excel, or you can search for a better option. Would you manage to complete the task in, say, two days? It'd probably be hard, right?

You can easily create all three reports with SQL. Extracting individual pieces of data from the database is a matter of applying the appropriate queries. You know that queries can be reused; sometimes you just need to change the scope of the data, e.g. by changing table and column names.

Is this encouraging enough? I think so!

What Does Creating Basic SQL Reports Look Like?

At my work, usually reports focus on mass mailing marketing campaigns. I often have to include data on message open rates, bounce rates, complaints, unsubscribes, click-through rates, and much more for specific target groups. And there are a lot of target groups… which are very rarely repeated in different campaigns.

Recently, as in the example above, I was given the task of preparing several reports at once. (at the end of the month, but still). Usually it took me long enough that I had to put my daily tasks aside. After all, caring for customers is the most important thing for us. They need to know the effects of our actions so they can plan their budgets for the next months.

That's why I decided to learn how to create SQL reports. I already have a basic knowledge of databases, so why not use it for my daily tasks? And so, I decided to expand my knowledge with the LearnSQL.com  Creating Basic SQL Reports course.

Say Hello to the Creating Basic SQL Reports Course

Like every LearnSQL.com course, Creating Basic SQL Reports is very clear and well written. You can do it anywhere –  while lying on the couch in front of the TV, returning from work by subway, or sitting on a plane flying to Gran Canaria.

There are tips and sample answers at your disposal, which saved me many times. Some things will be completely new, but that’s ok! If you like new challenges, this course is the place to be. You came to LearnSQL.com to learn, right?

If you want to learn how to get started writing SQL reports before you take the course, that’s good too. But I can attest that this course is really worth your time.

Above is an example of a task in the introduction of the SQL reporting course. It doesn’t look too hard, right? Even so, you will have to know how to use basic SQL commands like SELECT, JOIN, and ORDER BY. Even if you've forgotten the basics, you can pick them up again with our SQL cheat sheets. Of course, the hints and answers in the course itself are also very helpful. You can deduce a lot from the content of the assignment itself (and from the examples it contains).

I have to admit that I had a problem with one of the tasks right at the beginning. I completely forgot how the JOIN function should be used with COUNT(). However, it was not a major issue – using the hints and cheat sheets, as well as looking at my old notes, was enough to get me on track.

New Skills, New Possibilities

My SQL level is basic. At times in the course, I felt a bit baffled. I was wondering if I really knew SQL as well as I should.

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Here, for example, we have the statement CASE WHEN. This was one of those moments where I started to doubt that SQL reporting was all that easy.  Not that learning a new statement was hard; it was just that I realized that knowing the basics is not always enough to work with SQL (even if you are not a developer or data analyst).

What helped me the most at that time were the techniques that I used when learning SQL earlier. I pulled myself together and completed the course with my head held high.

And it turned out, SQL reporting is not that hard. I think this course is great for everyone who knows the basics. But if you want to avoid the unnecessary stress I felt from leaving such a long gap in my learning process, do some SQL practice before starting. Learning SQLrequires concentration and dedication. In moments of doubt, do not give up – use the cheat sheet and keep trying!

Anyone Can Learn SQL Reporting

You can use SQL to facilitate your daily duties, including creating reports. Once you have mastered this knowledge, working with and analyzing data will be much faster and easier. Now, I don’t have to spend a lot of time on preparing reports and searching for specific data somewhere in my company’s data ecosystem. And I’m just an everyday person, not an SQL expert or an IT pro.

So learn SQL reporting and make that database work for you!