Planning Multi-Step Queries
Explore how to break complex SQL questions into clear logical steps, think through query design as a structured story, and use AI to scaffold multi-step queries. Understand how planning improves debugging and explanation, then practice writing queries that compare departmental averages to company averages. This lesson teaches a step-by-step approach to build layered, maintainable SQL queries with AI support.
Step 1: Start with a real question
Let’s imagine a common data task: Find departments where the average employee salary is higher than the overall company average.
This question appears to be a single query, but it’s actually several steps in disguise.
Ask yourself:
What’s the company's average salary?
What’s the average per department?
How do I compare them?
Each part can become its own query step, a building block for the final answer. ...