Efficient Data Processing in SQL

Efficient Data Processing in SQL

A guide to understanding the core concepts of distributed data storage & processing, analytical functions, and query optimizations in your data warehouse.

You want to be able to write efficient data processing pipelines in SQL, but you don't know where to start!

There are too many topics to learn to get proficient at efficient data processing in SQL, like optimizing queries, partitioning, parallelism, data modeling, best practices, etc. It is overwhelming to have so many topics to learn! And even if you understand them, you're not sure if you can consider yourself "proficient in SQL". You want to be skilled in SQL and progress in your data career, but you don't know what to start learning and, more importantly, how to apply what you learn.

The most common recommendation for improving SQL optimization skills is "go find a problem and solve it," but where do you find a good problem, and how do you know if you solved it correctly?

You complete online SQL tutorials, but they don't explain how to optimize SQL, consider tradeoffs between different approaches, understand the data, or convert business questions to SQL queries. You keep hearing, "spend a couple of years working with SQL, and you'll be proficient," but you don't have years to get good at SQL!

By being proficient in SQL, you can process data efficiently, write clean/easy-to-understand SQL code, help your colleagues speed up their slow queries, answer business questions with data, quickly solve SQL interviews, and be recognized by your colleagues for your SQL expertise. You don't know how to go about achieving SQL proficiency.

Write efficient and easy-to-understand SQL queries.

But what if you could? What if you understood how an OLAP DB engine stores and processes data? You'll be able to process large amounts of data with minimal cost. Your colleagues will praise you for writing easy-to-understand and clean SQL code. Your stakeholders and boss will be thrilled to have you on their team.

Understand the different ways to process data in SQL and their pros and cons.

You will learn the different ways to store and encode data, how a distributed system will process that data, and how to optimize any SQL query by understanding the query plan. You'll be able to easily convert a data question/requirement to efficient SQL query(s). You will be the go-to person to wrangle large amounts of data!

Take your data career to the next level with SQL mastery!

What if you knew how to use window functions to replicate a for loop in SQL? You will use the appropriate data encoding and partitioning to make the SQL engine process data efficiently. You will know how to use a query planner to make a query performant.

What if you knew how to use SQL concepts (Windows, query optimization, CTEs, data storage, parallelization, etc.) effectively? Your high-performant SQL queries for data pipelines can save the company thousands of dollars! Being proficient at SQL puts you at the top of the data engineering talent pool. Be in high demand, get higher pay, and work on challenging & exciting problems. Start learning this future-proof skill set that is crucial for any business - right away!

It's true that learning how to choose the proper technique, utilize data partition/storage formats, and balance code optimization with complexity in sql can be challenging, time-consuming, and requires a lot of work experience, but it doesn't have to be.

Efficiently process data in SQL with the help of my e-book!

Learn how to process large amounts of data efficiently in SQL with my book "Efficient data processing in SQL" Understand how to use partitions, columnar storage formats, CTEs, windows, group bys, and filter push-down to compose efficient SQL queries. Breeze through your SQL interviews by understanding the business processes & data flows, creating efficient solutions, and explaining tradeoffs between multiple approaches.

Write efficient SQL queries, produce correct and fast results, and understand data warehouse core concepts.

Write efficient SQL by understanding the core concepts of distributed data processing.

You will learn to think in SQL, efficiently process big data, understand the OLAP DB engine's core concepts, and quickly answer common business questions. Write efficient SQL queries with total confidence!

Learn SQL with my e-book "Efficient data processing in SQL" You'll be writing efficient and easy-to-read SQL queries and advancing your data career immediately!

What others are saying 👇

"I really enjoyed the diagrams, they're very well supported by the text.I had some aha moments with the joins and disk storage portions of the book. It was my first introduction to Trino, I am impressed with this technology." - Andy

"This is a very good read after learning about the basics. The stuff that you are teaching is rarely covered in other tutorials (especially CTEs and window functions). These concepts are very important to improve your SQL skills." - Egarat

" I will surely recommend the book to friends that work in data. The reason been that the book thus far makes it easy to understand concepts and it explains what happens behind the scene when you run a query. This helps in writing optimized queries which in turn helps to save cost." - Oladayo

Recommended on reddit/r/dataengineering

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via reddit/r/dataengineering

What you will learn 🧠

1. Data warehouse modeling 101, & dissecting analytical queries
2. Data storage techniques, data processing patterns, and the tradeoffs involved
3. Complex analytical functions: advanced windows and CTEs
4. Templates for most common data processing questions
5. SQL basics

You will learn the above topics' what, why, and how. There are also examples and exercises for each topic to help you grok efficient data processing in SQL.

Visual representation of what you will learn

Who is this book NOT for?

• This book is not about OLTP systems or modeling data for transactional systems.
• This book is technical and not meant to describe what and why a database is needed.
• This book does not cover a specific database architecture. We use Trino as our warehouse and cover concepts that apply to modern distributed data processing systems, such as Spark, HIVE, Redshift, Trino, etc.

FAQs

1. Is this book beginner-friendly? Yes, Read the appendix SQL Basics chapter before starting the main chapters.
2. Refund policy? If you are unsatisfied, we offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Please reach out to help@startdataengineering.com.
3. What is an OLAP DB? It is a database designed for analytical querying. Read this article for context on why and where to use an OLAP DB.
4. Does content in this book only apply to OLAP DBs? Besides Chapter 4, the other chapters apply to most SQL databases.
5. Where can I see the table of contents? Please use the -> (right arrow) button on the preview image slides (the image at very top) to view the table of contents.
6. Does the book contain code examples? Yes, the book uses Trino to illustrate OLAP concepts. The book also includes examples and exercises to demonstrate the concepts you learn in each chapter. Please make sure you can run docker containers following the instructions here.
7. I have a unique question. Please send an email to help@startdataengineering.com.