Learn SQL in a Month of Lunches

1 Before you begin

Nearly every act of our lives generates data. Every purchase we make, every mile we travel, and every internet link we click adds to a colossal amount of ever-growing data, which for many organizations has become their most valued asset. This data is often stored in a relational database, which keeps the data secure, scalable, and available to be constantly read and modified by innumerable users.

But how exactly can these users work with the data in a relational database? More important, how can you read and write data that is critical to your organization? The answer, and the subject of this book, is Structured Query Language, more commonly known as SQL.

1.1 Why SQL matters

Now, you may be wondering whether SQL is important ...