SQL and Analytics

In this chapter, we went through the basics of SQL, tables, and queries. You may be wondering, then, what SQL has to do with analytics. You may have seen some parallels between the first two chapters. When we talk about a SQL table, it should be clear that it can be thought of as a dataset. Rows can be considered individual units of observation and columns can be considered features. If we view SQL tables in this way, we can see that SQL is a natural way to store datasets in a computer.

However, SQL can go further than just providing a convenient way to store datasets. Modern SQL implementations also provide tools for processing and analyzing data through various functions. Using SQL, we can clean data, transform data to more useful formats, and analyze data with statistics to find interesting patterns. The rest of this book will be dedicated to understanding how SQL can be used for these purposes productively and efficiently.