DeBarros' history has him working at many well known news organizations, and his time with those outlets has had him consume massive amounts of data from various sources, all with the hopes of finding some pattern in that data that he hopes will drive a story that readers would find intriguing. Because of this, all of his lessons have a focus to them that most books that handle this topic don't convey. Most guides present the knowledge for a reader who is learning for the sake of learning, and the examples given are tantamount to "Hello World." In Practical SQL, DeBarros shows real-world examples of how useful SQL can be from the first table you create to the last examples of how to slice the data.
DeBarros does this by using many different real world data files to power his examples. Readers will deal with everything from census data to temperature readings to crime reports to presidential speeches. What's best is that he has structured the lessons in such a way as to not only build up each more complex part of SQL in small understandable steps, but in ways, to tie back to older datasets from earlier in the book so that you can actively use your older information in new ways as you pick up more features of SQL.
Practical SQL focuses on PostgreSQL since it has a few very handy built-in features that make working with large data dumps easier than other SQL versions. For one, its Copy command that lets you quickly import a CSV file into a table, makes taking many of those external data sources and converting them into workable data a breeze. That being said, DeBarros regularly explains when a feature of PostgreSQL is and isn't part of the ANSI SQL Standard and, if possible, he touches on how a non-standard feature of PostgreSQL can be handled in other implementations like MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server.
Practical SQL: A Beginners Guide to Storytelling with Data doesn't just touch on basic techniques like building tables, manipulating their data and querying them. It delves into how to make views and even some lower level administrative tasks that someone who is maintaining their own database might have to understand. DeBarros also touches on some more advanced querying techniques like using built-in statistical functions and dealing with geographical information like maps. While this book is touted as a beginners guide, I feel like it tackles topics that I wouldn't expect to see in other SQL starter books, but the reasons DeBarros gives for teaching the reader these aspects make sense, especially given the target audience of a data miner who might be the sole person on the team that not only works with the data at hand, but also maintains their own database.
Practical SQL: A Beginners Guide to Storytelling with Data is a good book for both those starting to learn SQL and those who are well versed in its capabilities. Personally speaking, I've been elbow deep in SQL for almost 20 years now and I found myself learning about functions that I wasn't previously aware of. Granted, I haven't had a huge need to measure correlations between variables or determining the percentile in a dataset, but given the data that DeBarros works with and his goal for that data, it's easy to see how such functions could come up regularly. In the end, I think anyone with an interest in SQL should consider picking this book up. Both beginners and veterans alike will likely find something of value here.
