Book Image

The SQL Workshop

By : Frank Solomon, Prashanth Jayaram, Awni Al Saqqa
Book Image

The SQL Workshop

By: Frank Solomon, Prashanth Jayaram, Awni Al Saqqa

Overview of this book

Many software applications are backed by powerful relational database systems, meaning that the skills to be able to maintain a SQL database and reliably retrieve data are in high demand. With its simple syntax and effective data manipulation capabilities, SQL enables you to manage relational databases with ease. The SQL Workshop will help you progress from basic to advanced-level SQL queries in order to create and manage databases successfully. This Workshop begins with an introduction to basic CRUD commands and gives you an overview of the different data types in SQL. You'll use commands for narrowing down the search results within a database and learn about data retrieval from single and multiple tables in a single query. As you advance, you'll use aggregate functions to perform calculations on a set of values, and implement process automation using stored procedures, functions, and triggers. Finally, you'll secure your database against potential threats and use access control to keep your data safe. Throughout this Workshop, you'll use your skills on a realistic database for an online shop, preparing you for solving data problems in the real world. By the end of this book, you'll have built the knowledge, skills and confidence to creatively solve real-world data problems with SQL.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

Denormalization

Denormalization of data is another important concept, especially when it comes to querying efficiency.

In an enterprise, everything is about balance. Most organizations that deal with data do not completely adhere to the complex form of normalization. The reason for this is simple: normalization may kill efficiency when you need to query a large amount of data. Therefore, while we gain in terms of data integrity when normalizing data, we pay a lot in terms of processing power if we ever have to query data.

For instance, consider the table in Figure 3.17. If a user has two email addresses, would you have a single column and add both email addresses to it? You could, but that would be non-compliant with the first normal form of data. How do you work around this issue? Create a new table with an employee ID and email address? But then, the employee would have two email addresses and cannot be uniquely identified. Therefore, you would need to add a primary key to...