SQL Fundamentals

People today spend more and more time online, working, shopping, socializing, streaming entertainment, and doing many other things. This, along with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing resources is creating a mind-boggling torrent of data that companies, government agencies, and organizations of all kinds are collecting every day. And that volume is growing exponentially. All of these organizations are eager to take advantage of the amazing insights they can extract from the information that their products, services, and systems continuously generate. So it’s no surprise that there’s a growing demand for people with the skills and knowledge to access and analyze all of this information to produce actionable business intelligence. One of the most important of those skills is the ability to use the venerable SQL language to store, access, and manipulate data in databases.

In this video course, which uses a combination of lecture and exercises, your host, Thomas Nield, guides you through SQL fundamentals and database design. You’ll explore the role of relational databases such as Oracle and MySQL, and you’ll examine the overall data technology environment. You’ll also see how to perform specific tasks like aggregating and joining tables to reveal insights buried deep within data. And, using the simplicity and power of SQLite, you can practice designing and working with databases at home without a database server environment.

Designed for people with a fundamental understanding of data analysis with tools such as Excel (knowing how to use formulas would be helpful) as well as those with advanced skills in data science and programming, you’ll benefit from Thomas’ pragmatic approach to teaching and exploring SQL. So, whether you’re a project manager, data science professional, business analyst, programmer, engineer, or simply a person with basic computing skills and an interest in data, this learning path will help you to make the leap to data proficiency.

What you’ll learn—and how you can apply it

Through this video course, you will learn:

• Basic data analysis and writing tasks using SQL
• Principles for creating resilient relational databases
• The data technology landscape and the role of relational databases

And you’ll be able to:

• Quickly apply knowledge to most relational database platforms (Oracle, MySQL, etc)
• Aggregate and join tables to get insights from data
• Read, write, and transform data in tables
• Execute basic data analysis to create aggregations and establish relationships

This video course is for you because…

• You’re an analyst or data science professional who has done some data analysis and now needs to access larger datasets and analyze them
• You’re an IT professional who wants to get involved in accessing and managing data, and understand core principles of database design
• You’re an engineer who wants to collect data and integrate it into your systems, products, or projects
• You’re a programmer who needs to work with and build solutions around data
• You’re a project manager who needs to manage a team of data analysts, scientists, and/or engineers, and you want to proficiently navigate their data and have greater insight into their data inputs and outputs

Prerequisites:

• You should have experience with basic data analysis using Excel or other spreadsheet tools

Materials or downloads needed in advance:

• Code repository for the course: https://github.com/thomasnield/oreilly_sql_fundamentals_for_data
• A SQLite client, either SQLiteStudio (https://sqlitestudio.pl/) or SQLite Online (https://sqliteonline.com/) is recommended

Further resources:

• A helpful companion book by the video’s instructor: https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/getting-started-with/9781491938607/
• SQL Fundamentals for Data and Intermediate SQL for Data Analysis Live Online Trainings