Module 1: Introduction to SQL
Module Overview
Structured Query Language - the Lingua Franca of Data. Known (to varying degrees) by software engineers, data scientists, DevOps, and MBAs, SQL is the beginning (and sometimes entirety) of many data pipelines. Why is it universal? One reason is it is relatively simple - it is a declarative language, demanding what it wants by mere description, not worrying about the details of "how." SQL is a standard - all SQL distributions support a common core of functionality, and most add their own features or special syntax on top of it. For our purposes, we will focus on PostgreSQL, but most of what we learn will be general.
Learning Objectives
- Write basic SQL queries to get specific subsets of data from a database and answer basic "business questions"
- Understand the purpose of SQL joins and perform joins to access data from multiple tables
Guided Project
In this guided project, we'll learn the fundamentals of SQL and how to query databases effectively. Open guided-project.md in the GitHub repository below to follow along with the guided project.
Module Assignment
For this assignment, you'll practice writing SQL queries to retrieve and analyze data from a database, demonstrating your understanding of basic SQL operations and joins.