Yesterday, you took your first step in understanding the unique language of database access. Learning how to filter and sort the data returned by a SELECT statement provides you with the skills to get data from your database. Of course, this has only scratched the surface of what you can do with a SELECT statement.
In today's lesson, you will extend your knowledge of the SELECT statement by working with the columns in the database tables. We will cover a lot of information today, so prepare yourself. As you read this, you might ask yourself, "What will this do for me?" The answer to that question might not become clear until later in this book. Much of this lesson will help you throughout your career as a SQL programmer. The topics that will be discussed today are
Data types
Column manipulation
The CONVERT and CAST functions
Arithmetic and string operators
String functions
Date functions
Numeric functions
System functions
The CASE statement