Introduction

Since the invention of the first commercial computer, the process of storing data has evolved considerably over the past 50 years. Easy access to computers plays an important role as companies and organizations have been able to change the way they work with large and complex datasets—from manual bookkeeping to intelligent and statistics-based data management. Using data, insights that would have been virtually impossible to derive 50 years ago can now be found with just a few lines of code. Two of the most important tools in this revolution are the relational database and its primary language, Structured Query Language (SQL). These two technologies have been cornerstones of data processing and continue to be the backbone of most companies that deal with substantial amounts of data. Companies use relational databases as the primary method for storing much of their data. Furthermore, companies take much of this data and put it into specialized databases called data warehouses to perform advanced analytics on their data. Virtually all these data warehouses are accessed using SQL.

Relational databases require data to be organized into a fixed format and processed following a predefined algorithm. In recent years, there has been an emergence of NoSQL databases. Originally created as an alternative way of data storage, these NoSQL databases utilize technologies that are different from relational operations and SQL and can achieve what traditional relational databases cannot do or are not good at, such as distributed compute/storage, unformatted data (such as tweets) processing, and non-atomic read/write.

However, these NoSQL databases usually focus on a specific usage scenario and have yet to provide a more generic platform that can meet the needs of the majority of common database usage patterns. As such, these databases quickly evolved from "No SQL" to "Not Only SQL," signifying that they are a part of a larger ecosystem for data management, together with relational databases and SQL.

Compared to NoSQL databases, relational databases have several advantages that make them the center of data management ecosystems. The core reason is that relational databases maintain a good balance of features and performances for a wide variety of data operations, which makes them good candidates for a generic data management platform. The second reason is that all relational databases use SQL, which has a solid mathematical theory behind it and is easy to learn. In general, relational databases and SQL serve as the best place to start your data analytics journey.

Most people will find that SQL alone is enough for their needs. Only a small fraction of people will need the functionalities provided by a NoSQL database. But even for the latter, SQL will still serve as a great foundation for data analytical purposes.

Note

It is assumed that every person following this book has had some basic exposure to SQL. However, for those users who have very limited exposure, or have not used it for some time, this chapter will provide a basic refresher of what relational databases and SQL are, along with a basic review of SQL operations and syntax. You will also go over practice exercises to help reinforce these concepts.

To begin with, it is important to understand data and its characteristics.