In a time when it seems like data analysts are faced with more and more things to learn, one skillset has stood the test of time: SQL.
Whether you’re ensconsed in the Microsoft BI stack, pledged your analysis allegiance to R or whatever other scenario, it’s near-essential to know about relational databases and how to communicate with them — and I don’t see that changing. That’s where SQL comes in.
In fact, learning platform Dataquest found SQL the most common required skill among all job listings:
With this free checklist, you’ll learn the basics of SQL:
- The role of relational databases in data analytics, and the role of SQL in relational databases
- How to perform common row and column operations on database tables
- How to join two or more tables
- How to work with strings, dates and other data types
- The basics of data analysis using SQL
With this learning path you’ll read, watch and download your way through some of the best SQL learning content on the web. Be sure to bookmarks the sites you visit as great places to visit if (really, when) you get blocked with SQL.
This 30-day checklist is tailored to data analysts comfortable in tools like Excel, Power BI or Python learn the basics of reading from one or more tables and performing basic data analysis using SQL.
I assume that readers are on a Windows machine, although I suspect many of the tutorials can be completed just fine on a Mac.
Installing SQL on your computer
Speaking of the environment: SQL is not the easiest program to get up and running on your computer. I suggest installing SQLite and SQLiteStudio for (as the name implies) a lightweight solution. From there you can connect to a practice database: I suggest Sean Lahman’s baseball database.
You will learn how to connect to a database in Day 6 of the checklist. Simply download the Lahman database and connect to it using the steps shown in the video.
I recognize that Lahman is not the data you are going to see in the tutorials. It will be OK. Many of the tutorials will have in-browser tools for you to practice, and you can then translate what you’ve learned to your Lahman database.
Get the checklist here 👇
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What questions about SQL do you have? Do you have any favorite resources to share? Let me know in the comments.
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