Head First SQL, 2nd Edition

Table of Contents (the real thing)

• How to Use this Book: Intro

  Your brain on SQL.

  Here you are trying to learn something, while here your brain is doing you a favor by making sure the learning doesn’t stick. Your brain’s thinking, “Better leave room for more important things, like which wild animals to avoid and whether naked snowboarding is a bad idea.” So how do you trick your brain into thinking that your life depends on knowing SQL?

  • “Who is this book for?”

  • “We know what you’re thinking”

  • “Metacognition: thinking about thinking”

  • “Here’s what WE did”

  • “Here’s what YOU can do to bend your brain into submission”

  • “Read Me”

  • “The technical review team”

  • “Acknowledgments”

• Chapter 1

  It’s time to bring order to your data.

  These days, just about every aspect of life involves data: the applications on your phone, the appearance of your social media feed, and even those detailed notes you take about your flossing habits. But all that information can only be useful if it’s arranged in a meaningful way so you can find what you want, when you want it.

  You need a system to help you store and organize your data, and you need it now. Tables allow you to establish law and order and to craft your bits of info into rich assets, ready to be mined for insights. So turn the page, come on in, and get ready to enjoy the orderly world of relational databases.

  • “Defining your data”

  • “Think about your data in categories”

  • “What is SQL?”

  • “The anatomy of a table”

  • “What’s a database?”

  • “Behind the Scenes”