SQL has plenty of tools, but window functions are the one most people never quite get around to learning, until they're stuck three subqueries deep and wondering why this is so hard. Turns out it doesn't have to be.

For this session we're using an Oktoberfest dataset, because honestly, beer tents and crowds make for a pretty fun way to look at data. We'll poke around questions like which tent draws the biggest crowd, how drinking picks up (or slows down) over the course of the evening, and which tent ends up on top by the end of the night. Window functions make all of this pretty painless, no piling up subqueries or joins to get there.

We'll go through it together at a relaxed pace: running totals, moving averages, comparing a row to the ones around it. Nothing rushed, just working through real examples using the Oktoberfest data so it's easier to remember than the usual table A and table B.

Come as you are, whether you've been writing SQL for years or you're still getting comfortable with it. By the end you'll probably just wonder why you didn't pick this up sooner.