Either you are a full-stack developer or a data science aspirant, at some point in your career, you will come across SQL. SQL will assist you in analyzing data on time, writing queries to prepare, filter, sort, organize data efficiently, and far more.
Practice is the best way to learn SQL, and what suitable way to practice than to read a book and work alongside! That is why we’ve picked the best 10 SQL books that will enable you to learn SQL from scratch to advanced. We’ve included a unique mix of books for beginners, intermediate and advanced level SQL users, and readers that practically cater to data science requirements.
Best SQL Books
There’s no shortcut if you want to get the concepts of SQL for life, although you may see different kinds of best SQL books that claim to help you learn SQL in 10 minutes or ten days.
- SQL Cookbook
If you have already begun working with SQL and have a little understanding of select, update and insert queries, but you don’t have the time to go deeply through all the concepts, this book is a good reference. The book entails basic select, update and insert queries, but it is a crash program. The author assumes you have a background in SQL already (that’s the aim of the cookbook). It emphasizes writing complex queries, fine-tuning questions, data preparation and manipulation, grouping, and reporting. This book is suited for both beginners and intermediate learners. The author presents many queries as samples of what you would encounter in a real-life situation. Use it as a fast reference to find a question similar to the problem you are experiencing in your project. Begin by going over the preface, and if you want to urge into basics, undergo the appendix before exploring the book.
- SQL Beginner’s Guide & 7-Day Crash Course
This book will guide you on everything you would like to find out about SQL – not just writing queries but also understanding the roles of SQL and how it can assist with end-to-end project execution and reporting. It covers essential statistical analysis topics, thereby making it a good reference for data analysts and scientists. The complexity of issues increases as you get to chapters five and above. The author offers enough examples for you to understand the concepts well. Throughout the book, you will picture how the whole RDBMS works, the importance of SQL in a client-server-based system, and keeping data secure. This is the
book to start with if you have the time and energy to learn A to Z of SQL.
- SQL QuickStart Guide: The W Beginner’s Guide
The author of this book presents a unique genre – an amiable and straightforward tone. The author also encourages you to undertake new things and practice as you learn; learning SQL will become a piece of cake with this book. The book majorly caters to beginners and also those in the data analysis field and solves many problems associated with data manipulation and analysis. This book can be a guide for enhancing your knowledge if you have a working knowledge of SQL. In the first few chapters, the author explains technical terms and starts with fundamental terminologies. This builds a firm foundation for more learning of SQL. The flow of concepts from primary to advanced is seamless.
- Head First SQL
You will understand how witty, interactive, and informative Head First books are if you’ve ever read them. There are tons of quick tips and pictures on all sides that enable you to remember essential tit-bits. You will eventually enjoy how the authors have explained joins – neat and simple. The book follows a unique approach and features where you will be taught to unravel a problem, leading to a different issue that can be solved with another process. This enables you to remember the concepts well, but you will need to create time to understand each approach. It’s just like you are exploring different parts of SQL but with supervision. The book is fast-paced, so you would sometimes think you’ve understood the concept, but it may not be like that. Take time to understand and digest each concept and practice frequently before progressing on to the subsequent chapters.
- A Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft SQL Server 2016
This book can be considered suitable for beginner to intermediate SQL learners. The book gives you an understating of RDBMS and enlightens you on step-by-step installation, set-up, and basic troubleshooting. It is a technical book, so you shouldn’t use it as a quick reference for detailed learning purposes. The end part of the book also enlightens you to concepts of spatial data, XML, and JSON and how they adjust to the database system. It is an excellent book for developers, technical analysts, and database administrators alike. This book also has information about data security, performance tuning, reporting services, and different optimization techniques. It is a must-have book for the technical geeks.
- SQL Practice Problems
SQL Practice Problems is an excellent book for developers and business professionals who can write basic select, insert, update, and delete queries. It is a refresher course of what you already know, plus some more advanced difficulties to challenge you further. This is not the right book for you if you are trying to find an accurate step-by-step tutorial. It is appropriate if you want to get into working mode for simplifying real-world problems quickly. The book enables you to get the correct answers by making the expected answers for every given problem known. As you practice the problems you encountered in this book, you will need other online resources such as online courses and skim about concepts from other sources. This book will teach how SQL solves real business problems while going through the images in a natural flow.
- SQL for Data Analytics
It is an excellent book for both beginners and advanced-level learners of SQL. The book has many practical examples but is not too heavy. The tone chosen by the author is friendly and soothing, so it seems like a tutor is talking and explaining the concepts to you. If you are learning SQL for data science, you can learn tons from this book. The range of concepts covered is extensive and starts from basic select to advanced window functions. You will find many valuable tips to optimize queries to organize, extract, and manipulate large data sets by about this book as a data scientist. This book fits either you need a quick guide or a structured learning book. The book also covers the basics of how R and Python are often integrated with the database. The author focuses more on using complex data types for analysis, fine-tuning queries for optimum performance and provides a pleasant case study to enable you to visualize the end-to-end data analytics process.
- Oracle PL/SQL Programming
Oracle PL/SQL Programming book covers all PL/SQL topics in-depth. They have a basic knowledge of queries and scripting to make use of this book thoroughly. Lots of concepts are explained with real-world examples to make a practical mindset. There are examples given for ideas that haven’t been taught at times, but you will view them from other resources like blogs, tutorials, and short YouTube videos. Thus, the book is enough for learning basic and advanced concepts. The book’s writer seems to have understood how a developer thinks totally, and while reading, whenever you seem to have a doubt – it will be cleared within the following line! This book is the right book to learn PL/SQL programming for intermediate to advanced SQL developers.
- SQL All-In-One For Dummies
SQL All-In-One For Dummies books is always an excellent read as it requires no former knowledge. The book begins with the roles of RDBMS, where SQL fits in, and goes to explaining queries, data security, performance tuning, and more on XML and JSON. The book doesn’t go too much in detail but touches upon all essential SQL concepts. This would be a great book to start if you are beginning your SQL journey or you use SQL a few times at your job. It won’t scare or overwhelm you with too many concepts but make you comfortable. The correct information and code gathered to make this book a perfect start for SQL beginners. You can supplement the reader with more in-depth books if you are curious enough.
- Data Analysis Using SQL and Excel
The most powerful tool for data analytics is Data Analysis Using SQLSQL and Excel. The book does more data-science-centric than learning basic queries like select, update, and more. It focuses on assisting in writing complex queries to manipulate information from massive datasets or databases. Once you get along with the author’s way of explanation, you will find the concepts falling into place, although it might seem a little complicated to follow from the start. The chapter on data processing models is unique and valuable if you do much SQL in your analytics. The author has tutored well the importance of SQL and excels in creating different machine learning models. After the book, you will put down complex queries that are also preformatted. The ideas and warnings in between the chapters are insightful. With this book, you will enjoy the full flavor of data extraction, data flow, and data visualization through SQL and excel. With this book.
Conclusion
You can begin with SQL beginner’s guide or SQL for dummies for basic concepts If you have a working understanding of SQL and want to hone your skills or need books for quick reference, you should shop for SQL Cookbook or SQL Practice Problems (or both). Oracle PL/SQL programming will allow you to write scripts and more complex SQL queries. SQL for data analytics and analysis using SQL and Excel is meant for data analysts; thus, many experienced developers also find these books beneficial. While reading more complex concepts, having SQL cheat-sheet together will help you easily refer to commands.
