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

I'm a huge fan of books by No Starch Press. The texts are usually well written and every book I've read so far gives excellent examples that are broken down point by point with great explanations. I already have some basic SQL skills but decided to pick up this book anyway to round out my knowledge. Practical SQL definitely follows in the footsteps of other No Starch programming books. The written explanations provide the reader with great explanations of the SQL language and the code examples provide a lot of insight with point by point breakdown when necessary. One unique thing about this book compared to other SQL books is that the author has a research and journalism background. A lot of SQL books and tutorials I've come across focus on business databases. For those of us who aren't formally part of the business or technology fields and more oriented in the social sciences, this book is a tremendous resource. The author's problem-solving processes and example datasets (often real world examples) are great for social scientists that deal with real-world messy data.

The practicality of the SQL codes and the prompt willingness of Anthony himself to answer your questions are humbling and inspiring. This book has prepared me to know about relational databases in dept. It addresses all applications/browsers, ensuring you have the information you need for any operating system is available. The detailed update on the types of data, prepares you to understand data types and why they are used. Mining texts with data, data visualizations, and the use of PostgreSQL and MacBook and its connectivity to public servers like AWS is pretty cool. I will like to see more questions in future editions at the end of the chapter "Try it yourself". This will give students more practice opportunities. I wholeheartedly recommend this book and will readily buy it again.

Excellent

I really enjoyed this book during my thorough reading of it. As the title suggests, the book is primarily tailored to those who want to use SQL for data analysis and statistical examination (probably stemming from the author's background in data-based investigative journalism), however, about 90 percent of its contents are still directly relevant and applicable to the general SQL requirements of back-end development and database administration, so it is still a fantastic and very relevant read for those who are seeking a general introduction to SQL and relational databases for purposes other than data exploration and analysis. The book is sometimes (though rarely) shallow in its explanations on certain topics which lead to the 4 star rating, but in general, it is a great text with practical and down-to-earth examples, exercises, and instruction that I would recommend to anyone.

very effective book. Took this beginner from ZERO to ... TBD

I bought this book because I have had good luck with No Starch books before, and I heard that this was basically tailored to PostgreSQL. I set up and installed the software based on the instruction in the book and uploaded some CSVs to create a couple of DBs. I still gotta keep reading through the book and working out on things!

I think it’s great for getting started with learning SQL. Though I wish the author explained the code snippets better in the book rather than always referring to his GitHub account all the time. Otherwise it’s a great book Update: Finally finished the book and I love it. Knowing basic sql actually got me a new job as a data analyst for a marketing firm.

This book teaches you SQL using PostgreSQL. Though it doesn't dedicate alot of material to Postgres itself it does add a few chapters at the end for the software. The main thing is to learn SQL and Postgres can come later in a different book.

The main concepts of SQL are clearly explained and their repeated use throughout the book is good for long-term memorization and mastery. Besides, they ​are put in a real-world perspective and their relevance is demonstrated when they are used to exploit real-world data like the US Census of 2010. The book is easy to follow, and rich in content.

The book and its content are great. I highly recommend reading this. Especially if you want to begin your journey of learning SQL. The print is the worst. The pages are shifted towards right. Paragraphs are almost faded. It's not a good experience reading the book. This is a cheap print copy of the book.

From zero to hero in a few weeks. I had absolutely zero knowledge in SQL but after reading few chapters and playing with database I was able to graps main concepts very fast. Recommended

Excellent text book

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