Practical SQL: A Beginner's Guide to Storytelling with Data

Second edition of the best-selling Practical SQL. An approachable guide to programming in SQL (Structured Query Language) that will teach even beginning programmers how to build powerful databases and analyze data to find meaningful information.

Practical SQL is an approachable and fast-paced guide to SQL (Structured Query Language) written by longtime professional journalist Anthony DeBarros. SQL is the primary tool that programmers, web developers, researchers, journalists, and others use to explore data in a database. DeBarros focuses on using SQL to find the story in data, with the aid of the popular open-source database PostgreSQL and the pgAdmin interface.

This thoroughly revised second edition includes a new chapter describing how to set up PostgreSQL and more extensive discussion of pgAdmin's best features. The author has also added a chapter on the JSON data format that shows readers how to store and query JSON data. DeBarros has also updated the data in the book throughout, added coverage of additional topics, and perfected the book's examples.

Readers love DeBarros's use of exercises and real-world examples that demonstrate how to:

- Create databases and related tables using your own data
- Correctly define data typesAggregate, sort, and filter data to find patterns
- Clean their data and transfer data as text files
- Create advanced queries and automate tasks

This book uses PostgreSQL, but the SQL syntax is applicable to many database applications, including Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL.