Book Image

Data Exploration and Preparation with BigQuery

By : Mike Kahn
Book Image

Data Exploration and Preparation with BigQuery

By: Mike Kahn

Overview of this book

Data professionals encounter a multitude of challenges such as handling large volumes of data, dealing with data silos, and the lack of appropriate tools. Datasets often arrive in different conditions and formats, demanding considerable time from analysts, engineers, and scientists to process and uncover insights. The complexity of the data life cycle often hinders teams and organizations from extracting the desired value from their data assets. Data Exploration and Preparation with BigQuery offers a holistic solution to these challenges. The book begins with the basics of BigQuery while covering the fundamentals of data exploration and preparation. It then progresses to demonstrate how to use BigQuery for these tasks and explores the array of big data tools at your disposal within the Google Cloud ecosystem. The book doesn’t merely offer theoretical insights; it’s a hands-on companion that walks you through properly structuring your tables for query efficiency and ensures adherence to data preparation best practices. You’ll also learn when to use Dataflow, BigQuery, and Dataprep for ETL and ELT workflows. The book will skillfully guide you through various case studies, demonstrating how BigQuery can be used to solve real-world data problems. By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered the use of SQL to explore and prepare datasets in BigQuery, unlocking deeper insights from data.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Part 1: Introduction to BigQuery
4
Part 2: Data Exploration with BigQuery
10
Part 3: Data Preparation with BigQuery
14
Part 4: Hands-On and Conclusion

Preface

In the ever-expanding universe of data, the ability to explore and prepare information for meaningful insights is paramount. Welcome to Data Exploration and Preparation with BigQuery. This book is a guided journey into the world of leveraging Google BigQuery, a powerful and scalable data warehouse, for unraveling the potential within your data. Whether you’re an analyst embarking on a quest for patterns or a seasoned data engineer forging pathways to actionable intelligence, this book is developed to be your companion.

In these pages, we will cover the art and science of data exploration and preparation, the foundational steps that begin the practice of data analytics. From structuring complex datasets to optimizing queries and using best practices, each chapter will direct you through the landscape of data analysis and transformation.

The book extends beyond technical nuances and dives into the philosophy of data, recognizing that behind every query, there is a story waiting to be unveiled. This book provides details beyond official documentation, providing strategies and approaches from years of customer interactions to accelerate your journey with data in BigQuery.

Google BigQuery is a leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems (2022), which recognizes its exceptional capabilities and industry impact. BigQuery has earned its place by demonstrating excellence as a data warehouse with its innovative architecture designed for scalable and high-performance analytics. BigQuery empowers organizations to unlock the full potential of their data through swift and sophisticated querying and seamless integrations with other Google Cloud services.

There is an increasing demand for data analysts and data engineers, and these roles will leverage the strategies and approaches outlined in this book.