Best Way to Start Learning SQL in 2020
First of all, we are going to start explaining the importance of the big data in this developing world and we will focus on SQL, which is one of the indispensable technologies in this developing data world.
The world is changing day by day and our life becomes more comfortable and easier with the new technologies produced.
With these developments, there is a large increase in the amount of data in the world. Many big data experts agree that the amount of data produced will increase exponentially in the future.
IDC was estimating that 1.2 zettabytes (1.2 trilliongigabytes) of data was generated in 2010. In 2020, it was estimated that the amount of newly produced data will increase 44 times, reaching 35 zettabytes (35 trillion gigabytes).
In the past years, the level of 33 zettabytes had already been reached, and these situations led IDC to estimate that 175 zettabytes (175 trillion gigabytes) of new data will be generated by 2025.
Such a large amount of data produced with all these developing technologies must be processed. This is where SQL intervenes. Now, in this post, I will talk about SQL.
What is SQL
Sql was developed in the 1970s at IBM Corporation, Inc. , by Donald Chamberlin.
SQL (Structured Query Language) is one of the most popular languages used to process, store, update data from a relational database.
It consists of various commands divided into 4 categories such as DDL, DML, DCL, TCL to play with data in databases.
To put it simply, two people have to speak the same language to understand each other. In this example, the user and database need SQL language to communicate with each other.
SQL has many advantages. For example :
- SQL is an easy language to learn because it has basic standarts.
- SQL queries are portable. This means we can also run SQL queries in other environments.
- SQL should also be written in a certain standard. Therefore, there is no uncertainty.
How Long Does it Take To Learn SQL
Just as the process works when you want to learn a new language, the same is true for SQL or any other programming language.
However, we can say that this situation is easier and more fun for SQL. Simply put, we can say that it can take about 2 or 3 weeks if you put the necessary willingness and attention, depending on your study method.
And you will still need to continue to learn SQL throughout your career.
How To Use SQL
It has various commands used to add, delete, change or update data in the SQL database.
- Syntax of Creating Database :
CREATE DATABASE DatabaseName
Example :
CREATE DATABASE PersonId
- Syntax of Creating a Table :
CREATE TABLE TableName
Example :
CREATE TABLE Name_of_the_table (
Column1 data_type,
Column2 data_type,
ColumnN data_type
);
- UPDATE TableName : used to modify the data already present in the table.
- SELECT : used to select a data from database and store it in a result table .
Now that we know what SQL is and what it will hold in the future, let’s list the best courses for those who want to learn and maybe build a career in this field.
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Codeacademy is one of the platforms that offers the best training courses in software and tech. My first recommendation in this article is Codeacademy’s SQL course.
The reason I recommend this course in the first place is that the course is really the best course that I have found among sql courses.
More than 1 million people took this course and the comments and evaluations made by the people who took the course are the reason why I put this course in the first place.
It is a beginner level course that will bring you to a good point in the sql field.
Click Here To Go Course Page .
Udemy – SQL For Data Science
Udemy is one of the most well-known places in the entire e learning platform.
The course I recommend here is the Master SQL For Data Science course.
It is suitable for beginners and is approximately 9 hours long.
Click Here to Go To Course Page
Coursera – SQL For Data Science
Offered by the University of California, this course is truly one of the best SQL courses.
It is a course suitable for beginners and can be completed in 15 hours.
Click Here To Go To Course Page
Coursera – Analyzing Big Data with Sql
- Beginner Level
- It has content that can be completed in 18 hours.
Click Here To Go To Course Page
Udemy – The Complete SQL Bootcamp 2020 : Go From Zero to Hero
As the name suggests, it is a course suitable for beginners and has a quality that will bring you to a good level in the field.
As nearly 300 thousand students are enrolled, udemy is also rated as one of the best courses in its field.
Best SQL Books
Although learning programming with courses is effective, it is important to learn with books and to learn technical details well.
You can find the best SQL books below.
OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION
Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes offers straightforward, practical answers when you need fast results.
By working through the book’s 22 lessons of 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn what you need to know to take advantage of the SQL language.
Lessons cover IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server and SQL Server Express, MariaDB, MySQL, Oracle and Oracle express, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
Full-color code examples help you understand how SQL statements are structured
Tips point out shortcuts and solutions
Cautions help you avoid common pitfalls
Notes explain additional concepts, and provide additional information
10 minutes is all you need to learn how to…
- Use the major SQL statements
- Construct complex SQL statements using multiple clauses and
- operators
- Retrieve, sort, and format database contents
- Pinpoint the data you need using a variety of filtering techniques
- Use aggregate functions to summarize data
- Join two or more related tables
- Insert, update, and delete data
- Create and alter database tables
- Work with views, stored procedures, and more
OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION
You know the rudiments of the SQL query language, yet you feel you aren’t taking full advantage of SQL’s expressive power. You’d like to learn how to do more work with SQL inside the database before pushing data across the network to your applications. You’d like to take your SQL skills to the next level.
Let’s face it, SQL is a deceptively simple language to learn, and many database developers never go far beyond the simple statement: SELECT columns FROM table WHERE conditions. But there is so much more you can do with the language. In the SQL Cookbook, experienced SQL developer Anthony Molinaro shares his favorite SQL techniques and features. You’ll learn about:
- Window functions, arguably the most significant enhancement to SQL in the past decade. If you’re not using these, you’re missing out
- Powerful, database-specific features such as SQL Server’s PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators, Oracle’s MODEL clause, and PostgreSQL’s very useful GENERATE_SERIES function
- Pivoting rows into columns, reverse-pivoting columns into rows, using pivoting to facilitate inter-row calculations, and double-pivoting a result set
- Bucketization, and why you should never use that term in Brooklyn.
- How to create histograms, summarize data into buckets, perform aggregations over a moving range of values, generate running-totals and subtotals, and other advanced, data warehousing techniques
- The technique of walking a string, which allows you to use SQL to parse through the characters, words, or delimited elements of a string
Written in O’Reilly’s popular Problem/Solution/Discussion style, the SQL Cookbook is sure to please. Anthony’s credo is: “When it comes down to it, we all go to work, we all have bills to pay, and we all want to go home at a reasonable time and enjoy what’s still available of our days.” The SQL Cookbook moves quickly from problem to solution, saving you time each step of the way.
OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION
The ability to write SQL is one of the most in-demand job skills. Are you prepared?
It’s easy to find basic SQL syntax information online. What’s hard to find is challenging, well-designed, real-world problems—the type of problems that come up when you’re dealing with data. Learning how to solve these problems will give you the skill and confidence to step up in your career.
With SQL Practice Problems, you can get that level of experience by solving sets of targeted problems. These aren’t just problems designed as syntax examples. These are the most common problems you encounter when you deal with data.
You will get real world practice, with real world data. I’ll teach you how to “think” in SQL, how to analyze data problems, figure out the fundamentals, and work towards a solution that you can be proud of.
Can I run SQL Practice Problems on a Mac? No, it requires a computer with Microsoft Windows. I also offer a Professional package at SQLPracticeProblems.com which is suitable for both Windows and Mac.
How important is the real-life, hands-on problem solving that you can find in SQL Practice Problems?
You can watch videos online that will walk you through various aspects of databases, and SQL. And you can read up on SQL syntax and keywords, and review sample code.
But…to really absorb and be able to apply your learning, you need to solve real-world problems. Being presented with a SQL problem, and working through that problem (with hints, if necessary) will help you understand and remember like nothing else.
What do you get when you buy SQL Practice Problems?
- Setup instructions for Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition and SQL Server Management Studio (Microsoft Windows required). Both are free downloads.
- A customized practice database, with a video walk-through on setting it up.
- Practice problems – 57 problems that you work through, step-by-step. There are targeted hints if you need them, which help guide you through the question.
- Answers and a short, targeted discussion section on each question, with alternative answers and tips on usage and good programming practice.
What does SQL Practice Problems not contain?
- Complex descriptions of syntax. There’s just what you need, and no more.
- The differences between every single SQL variant (MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, etc). The practice problems are set up with Microsoft SQL Server, and the differences are minor and easy to find online.
- Details on Insert, Update and Delete statements. The hardest thing to learn in SQL is how to write Select statements that return complex data. Other components of SQL are relatively easy.
From customer reviews:
Probably the most useful technical book I’ve used! Challenging problems with appropriate hints – use as needed. She should be writing other books.
– A. J.
I have numerous books on SQL, and have taken courses from people with lots of experience with data and SQL. Alas, knowing the material is not the same as being able to present it clearly and in digestible bites. Obviously, you have that knack. I have learned things from your book that nobody ever showed me before. I sincerely hope that you will write more books.
– H. V
I am starting from scratch, all self-taught so far in SQL, and was picking up the syntax and wording, but I could not find anything to give me real world application and scenarios. This book changed that! Great book, great problems, really makes you think.
OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION
Take your first steps to become a fully qualified data analyst by learning how to explore large relational datasets.
Key Features
- Explore a variety of statistical techniques to analyze your data
- Integrate your SQL pipelines with other analytics technologies
- Perform advanced analytics such as geospatial and text analysis
Book Description
Understanding and finding patterns in data has become one of the most important ways to improve business decisions. If you know the basics of SQL, but don’t know how to use it to gain business insights from data, this book is for you.
SQL for Data Analytics covers everything you need progress from simply knowing basic SQL to telling stories and identifying trends in data. You’ll be able to start exploring your data by identifying patterns and unlocking deeper insights. You’ll also gain experience working with different types of data in SQL, including time-series, geospatial, and text data. Finally, you’ll understand how to become productive with SQL with the help of profiling and automation to gain insights faster.
By the end of the book, you’ll able to use SQL in everyday business scenarios efficiently and look at data with the critical eye of analytics professional.
What you will learn
- Use SQL to summarize and identify patterns in data
- Apply special SQL clauses and functions to generate descriptive statistics
- Use SQL queries and subqueries to prepare data for analysis
- Perform advanced statistical calculations using the window function
- Analyze special data types in SQL, including geospatial data and time data
- Import and export data using a text file and PostgreSQL
- Debug queries that won’t run
- Optimize queries to improve their performance for faster results
Who this book is for
If you’re a database engineer looking to transition into analytics, or a backend engineer who wants to develop a deeper understanding of production data, you will find this book useful. This book is also ideal for data scientists or business analysts who want to improve their data analytics skills using SQL. Knowledge of basic SQL and database concepts will aid in understanding the concepts covered in this book.
Table of Contents
- Understanding and Describing Data
- The Basics of SQL for Analytics
- SQL for Data Preparation
- Aggregate Functions for Data Analysis
- Window Functions for Data Analysis
- Importing and Exporting Data
- Analytics Using Complex Data Types
- Performant SQL
- Using SQL to Uncover the Truth – A Case Study
OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION
The Definitive Guide to SQL
Get comprehensive coverage of every aspect of SQL from three leading industry experts. Revised with coverage of the latest RDBMS software versions, this one-stop guide explains how to build, populate, and administer high-performance databases and develop robust SQL-based applications.
SQL: The Complete Reference, Third Edition shows you how to work with SQL commands and statements, set up relational databases, load and modify database objects, perform powerful queries, tune performance, and implement reliable security policies. Learn how to employ DDL statements and APIs, integrate XML and Java scripts, use SQL objects, build web servers, handle remote access, and perform distributed transactions. Techniques for managing in-memory, stream, and embedded databases that run on today’s mobile, handheld, and wireless devices are included in this in-depth volume.
- Build SQL-based relational databases and applications
- Create, load, and modify database objects using SQL
- Construct and execute simple, multitable, and summary queries
- Implement security measures with authentication, privileges, roles, and views
- Handle database optimization, backup, recovery, and replication
- Work with stored procedures, functions, extensions, triggers, and objects
- Extend functionality using APIs, dynamic SQL, and embedded SQL
- Explore advanced topics such as DBMS transactions, locking mechanisms, materialized views, and two-phase commit protocol
- Understand the latest market trends and the future of SQL.
