SQL Primer - by Rahul Batra (Paperback)

About the Book

Tagline: Add a core competency to your skill set that every programmer, system administrator, database administrator, and data scientist should have.

Book Synopsis

The recent surge of interest in data science has propelled the SQL language to the top of the list of languages for anyone working with data to learn and have in their proverbial toolbelt. This book provides a foundation in the SQL language that will benefit programmers, database administrators, data scientists, and others . The book is short and sweet, focusing on the most-used parts of SQL without getting bogged down in arcane details or vendor-specific features. The book teaches a database agnostic SQL that works on almost any database system, and provides a sound foundation on which to build one's expertise in the language.

From the Back Cover

Build a core level of competency in SQL so you can recognize the parts of queries and write simple SQL statements. SQL knowledge is essential for anyone involved in programming, data science, and data management. This book covers features of SQL that are standardized and common across most database vendors. You will gain a base of knowledge that will prepare you to go deeper into the specifics of any database product you might encounter.
Examples in the book are worked in PostgreSQL and SQLite, but the bulk of the examples are platform agnostic and will work on any database platform supporting SQL. Early in the book you learn about table design, the importance of keys as row identifiers, and essential query operations. You then move into more advanced topics such as grouping and summarizing, creating calculated fields, joining data from multiple tables when it makes business sense to do so, and more. Throughout the book, you are exposed to a set-based approachto the language and are provided a good grounding in subtle but important topics such as the effects of null value on query results. With the explosion of data science, SQL has regained its prominence as a top skill to have for technologists and decision makers worldwide. SQL Primer will guide you from the very basics of SQL through to the mainstream features you need to have a solid, working knowledge of this important, data-oriented language.
What You'll Learn:

• Create and populate your own database tables
  
• Read SQL queries and understand what they are doing
  
• Execute queries that get correct results
  
• Bring together related rows from multiple tables
  
• Group and sort data in support of reporting applications
• Get a grip on nulls, normalization, and other key concepts
• Employ subqueries, unions, and other advanced features

About the Author

​Rahul Batra was first introduced to programming in 1996 with GWBASIC, but he did not seriously foray into programming until 2001 when he started learning C++. Along the way, Rahul dabbled in many other languages such as C, Ruby, Perl, Python, and Lisp. He has worked with databases such as PostgreSQL, Sybase ASA, and SQLite. He is passionate about sharing knowledge, especially with those who are just starting out. Rahul currently lives and works in Gurgaon, India.