Best SQL Books for Beginners

Here is the list of the Best SQL Books for Beginners and Advanced in 2022 for Data Science to learn. Read this list of best SQL books and if you found any Best SQL Book is missing please comment on the Best SQL book name so that we can add it and update the list.

10 Best SQL Books for Beginners and Advanced:

SQL QuickStart Guide: The Simplified Beginner’s Guide to Managing, Analyzing, and Manipulating Data With SQL

Rating: 4.6/5

Are you a developer who wants to expand your mastery of database management?

Then you NEED these Best SQL books. Buy now and start reading today!

Are you a project manager who needs to better understand your development team’s needs? A decision-maker who needs to make deeper data-driven analysis?

Everything you need to know is included in these pages!

SQL QuickStart Guide is ideal for those seeking to increase their job prospects and enhance their careers, for developers looking to expand their programming capabilities, or for anyone who wants to take advantage of our inevitably data-driven future—even with no prior coding experience!

SQL QuickStart Guide is Perfect For:

• Professionals looking to augment their job skills in preparation for a data-driven future
• Job seekers who want to pad their skills and resume for a durable employability edge
• Beginners with zero prior experience
• Managers, decision makers, and business owners looking to manage data-driven business insights
• Developers looking to expand their mastery beyond the full stack
• Anyone who wants to be better prepared for our data-driven future!

In SQL QuickStart Guide You’ll Discover:

• The basic structure of databases—what they are, how they work, and how to successfully navigate them
• How to use SQL to retrieve and understand data no matter the scale of a database (aided by numerous images and examples)
• The most important SQL queries, along with how and when to use them for best effect
• Professional applications of SQL and how to “sell” your new SQL skills to your employer, along with other career-enhancing considerations

Pros:

• Good examples and useful for coding beginners or experienced people who are wanting to learn SQL.
• 80% of the book is on querying approaches, and the last sections are on views and database record updating.
• Easy to understand and most importantly PRACTICAL with examples and exercises to do.

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SQL Server 2019 Administrator’s Guide: A definitive guide for DBAs to implement, monitor, and maintain enterprise database solutions, 2nd Edition

This second edition of the SQL Server Administrator’s Guide will not only teach you how to administer an enterprise database, but also help you become proficient at managing and keeping the database available, secure, and stable.

You’ll start by learning how to set up your SQL Server and configure new and existing environments for optimal use. The book then takes you through designing aspects and delves into performance tuning by showing you how to use indexes effectively.

You’ll understand certain choices that need to be made about backups, implement security policy, and discover how to keep your environment healthy.

Tools available for monitoring and managing a SQL Server database, including automating health reviews, performance checks, and much more, will also be discussed in detail.

As you advance, the book covers essential topics such as migration, upgrading, and consolidation, along with the techniques that will help you when things go wrong.

Once you’ve got to grips with integration with Azure and streamlining big data pipelines, you’ll learn best practices from industry experts for maintaining a highly reliable database solution.

Whether you are an administrator or are looking to get started with database administration, this SQL Server book will help you develop the skills you need to successfully create, design, and deploy database solutions.

What you will learn

• Discover SQL Server 2019’s new features and how to implement them
• Fix performance issues by optimizing queries and making use of indexes
• Design and use an optimal database management strategy
• Combine SQL Server 2019 with Azure and manage your solution using various automation techniques
• Implement efficient backup and recovery techniques in line with security policies
• Get to grips with migrating, upgrading, and consolidating with SQL Server
• Set up an AlwaysOn-enabled stable and fast SQL Server 2019 environment
• Understand how to work with Big Data on SQL Server environments

Who this book is for:

This Best SQL books is for database administrators, database developers, and anyone who wants to administer large and multiple databases single-handedly using Microsoft’s SQL Server 2019. Basic awareness of database concepts and experience with previous SQL Server versions is required.

Pros:

• Good explanation on various concepts starting from installation of SQL Server Management Studio, domain controllers, SQL Server Agent jobs, etc.
• The book covers planning migration and upgrades and includes an example of migrating from an Access database.

Cons:

• Some of the terminologies are confusing and need to be corrected.

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T-SQL Querying (Developer Reference)

Rating: 4.7/5

Squeeze maximum performance and efficiency from every T-SQL query you write or tune. Four leading experts take an in-depth look at T-SQL’s internal architecture and offer advanced practical techniques for optimizing response time and resource usage.

Emphasizing a correct understanding of the language and its foundations, the authors present unique solutions they have spent years developing and refining. All code and techniques are fully updated to reflect new T-SQL enhancements in Microsoft SQL Server 2014 and SQL Server 2012.

Write faster, more efficient T-SQL code:

• Move from procedural programming to the language of sets and logic
• Master an efficient top-down tuning methodology
• Assess algorithmic complexity to predict performance
• Compare data aggregation techniques, including new grouping sets
• Efficiently perform data-analysis calculations
• Make the most of T-SQL’s optimized bulk import tools
• Avoid date/time pitfalls that lead to buggy, poorly performing code
• Create optimized BI statistical queries without additional software
• Use programmable objects to accelerate queries
• Unlock major performance improvements with In-Memory OLTP
• Master useful and elegant approaches to manipulating graphs

Pros:

• The logical processing chapter, which is important given it’s the first chapter, should open the eyes of many SQL code writers out there.
• Many examples, with analysis, to describe why queries do what they do, and how to avoid pitfalls of “old thinking”

Cons:

• This is NOT a reference book! This is a cover-to-cover read. It’s unlikely this will be used often, aside from quick refreshes from time-to-time.

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Learn T-SQL Querying: A guide to developing efficient and elegant T-SQL code

Rating: 4.7/5

Transact-SQL (T-SQL) is Microsoft’s proprietary extension to the SQL language that is used with Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database. This book will be a useful guide to learning the art of writing efficient T-SQL code in modern SQL Server versions, as well as the Azure SQL Database.

The book will get you started with query processing fundamentals to help you write powerful, performant T-SQL queries. You will then focus on query execution plans and learn how to leverage them for troubleshooting.

In the later chapters, you will learn how to identify various T-SQL patterns and anti-patterns. This will help you analyze execution plans to gain insights into current performance, and determine whether or not a query is scalable.

You will also learn to build diagnostic queries using dynamic management views (DMVs) and dynamic management functions (DMFs) to address various challenges in T-SQL execution.

Next, you will study how to leverage the built-in tools of SQL Server to shorten the time taken to address query performance and scalability issues.

In the concluding chapters, the book will guide you through implementing various features, such as Extended Events, Query Store, and Query Tuning Assistant using hands-on examples.

• Use Query Store to understand and easily change query performance
• Recognize and eliminate bottlenecks that lead to slow performance
• Deploy quick fixes and long-term solutions to improve query performance
• Implement best practices to minimize performance risk using T-SQL
• Achieve optimal performance by ensuring careful query and index design
• Use the latest performance optimization features in SQL Server 2017 and SQL Server 2019
• Protect query performance during upgrades to newer versions of SQL Server

Who this book is for

This book is for database administrators, database developers, data analysts, data scientists, and T-SQL practitioners who want to get started with writing T-SQL code and troubleshooting query performance issues, through the help of practical examples. Previous knowledge of T-SQL querying is not required to get started on this book.

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Pro SQL Server 2019 Administration: A Guide for the Modern DBA

Rating: 4.5/5

Pro SQL Server 2019 Administration takes DBAs on a journey that begins with planning their SQL Server deployment and runs through installing and configuring the instance, administering and optimizing database objects, and ensuring that data is secure and highly available. Finally, readers will learn how to perform advanced maintenance and tuning techniques.

This book teaches you to make the most of new SQL Server 2019 functionality, including Data Discovery and Classification.

The book promotes best-practice installation, shows how to configure for scalability and high workloads, and demonstrates the gamut of database-level maintenance tasks such as index maintenance, database consistency checks, and table optimizations.

This edition includes coverage of new features such as Memory-optimized TempDB Metadata, and Always Encrypted with Secure Enclaves. Other new content includes coverage of Query Store, resumable index operations, installation on Linux, and containerized SQL.

• Install and configure SQL Server on Windows through the GUI and with PowerShell 
• Install and configure SQL Server on Linux and in Containers
• Optimize tables through in-memory OLTP, table partitioning, and the creation of indexes
• Secure and encrypt data to protect against embarrassing data breaches
• Ensure 24x7x365 access through high-availability and disaster recovery features
• Back up your data to ensure against loss, and recover data when needed
• Perform routine maintenance tasks such as database consistency checks  
• Troubleshoot and solve performance problems in SQL queries and in the database engine

Who This Book Is For

SQL Server DBAs who manage on-premise installations of SQL Server. This book is also useful for DBAs who wish to learn advanced features such as Query Store, Extended Events, Distributed Replay, and Policy-Based Management

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Mastering Oracle SQL

Rating: 4.5/5

It covers Oracle s vast library of built-in functions, the full range of Oracle SQL query-writing features, regular expression support, new aggregate and analytic functions, subqueries in the SELECT and WITH clauses, multiset union operators, enhanced support for hierarchical queries: leaf and loop detection, and the CONNECT_BY_ROOT operator, new partitioning methods (some introduced in Oracle9i Release 2), and the native XML datatype, XMLType.

Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition fills the gap between the sometimes spotty vendor documentation and other books on SQL that just don’t explore the full depth of what is possible with Oracle-specific SQL.

For those who want to harness the untapped (and often overlooked) power of Oracle SQL, this essential guide for putting Oracle SQL to work will prove invaluable.

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Murach’s SQL Server 2019 for Developers

Rating: 4.7/5

If you’re an application developer, or you’re training to be one, this latest edition of Murach’s classic SQL Server book is made for you.

To start, it presents the SQL statements that you need to retrieve and update the data in a database. These are the SQL statements that you’ll use every day. Then, it shows you how to design a database, how to implement that design, and how to work with database features like views, scripts, stored procedures, functions, triggers, transactions, security, XML data, and BLOB data with FILESTREAM storage.

The result? You’ll be able to create database applications that are thoroughly professional. You’ll be familiar with the DBA-related issues that let you work far more effectively than most of your colleagues. And you’ll have a handy reference at your side to answer questions and handle new challenges as they come up.

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T-SQL Fundamentals

Rating: 4.7/5

Master T-SQL fundamentals and write robust code for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database. Itzik Ben-Gan explains key T-SQL concepts and helps you apply your knowledge with hands-on exercises.

The book first introduces T-SQL’s roots and underlying logic. Next, it walks you through core topics such as single-table queries, joins, subqueries, table expressions, and set operators.

Then the book covers more-advanced data-query topics such as window functions, pivoting, and grouping sets. The book also explains how to modify data, work with temporal tables, and handle transactions, and provides an overview of programmable objects.

• Review core SQL concepts and its mathematical roots
• Create tables and enforce data integrity
• Perform effective single-table queries by using the SELECT statement
• Query multiple tables by using joins, subqueries, table expressions, and set operators
• Use advanced query techniques such as window functions, pivoting, and grouping sets
• Insert, update, delete, and merge data
• Use transactions in a concurrent environment
• Get started with programmable objects–from variables and batches to user-defined functions, stored procedures, triggers, and dynamic SQL

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Beginning T-SQL: A Step-by-Step Approach

Rating: 4.7/5

Beginning T-SQL starts you on the path to mastering T-SQL with an emphasis on best practices. Using the sound coding techniques taught in this book will lead to excellent performance in the queries that you write in your daily work.

Important techniques such as windowing functions are covered to help you write fast-executing queries that solve real business problems.The book begins with an introduction to databases, normalization, and to setting up your learning environment.

You will learn about the tools you need to use such as SQL Server Management Studio, Azure Data Studio, and SQL Notebooks. Each subsequent chapter teaches an aspect of T-SQL, building on the skills learned in previous chapters.

Exercises in most chapters provide an opportunity for the hands-on practice that leads to true learning and distinguishes the competent professional. 

You will:

• Install a sandboxed SQL Server instance for learning
• Understand how relational databases are designed
• Create objects such as tables and stored procedures
• Query a SQL Server table 
• Filter and order the results of a query
• Query and work with specialized data types such as XML and JSON
• Apply modern features such as window functions
• Choose correct techniques so that your queries perform well

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SQL for Data Analytics: Perform fast and efficient data analysis with the power of SQL

Understanding and finding patterns in data has become one of the most important ways to improve business decisions. If you know the basics of SQL, but don’t know how to use it to gain the most effective business insights from data, this book is for you.

SQL for Data Analytics helps you build the skills to move beyond basic SQL and instead learn to spot patterns and explain the logic hidden in data. You’ll discover how to explore and understand data by identifying trends and unlocking deeper insights.

You’ll also gain experience working with different types of data in SQL, including time-series, geospatial, and text data. Finally, you’ll learn how to increase your productivity with the help of profiling and automation.

By the end of this book, you’ll be able to use SQL in everyday business scenarios efficiently and look at data with the critical eye of an analytics professional.

Who this book is for

If you’re a database engineer looking to transition into analytics, or a backend engineer who wants to develop a deeper understanding of production data, you will find this book useful. This book is also ideal for data scientists or business analysts who want to improve their data analytics skills using SQL. Knowledge of basic SQL and database concepts will aid in understanding the concepts covered in this book.

What you will learn

• Perform advanced statistical calculations using the WINDOW function
• Use SQL queries and subqueries to prepare data for analysis
• Import and export data using a text file and psql
• Apply special SQL clauses and functions to generate descriptive statistics
• Analyze special data types in SQL, including geospatial data and time data
• Optimize queries to improve their performance for faster results
• Debug queries that won’t run
• Use SQL to summarize and identify patterns in data

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Conclusion:

Up to now, we have discussed 10 Best SQL Books for Beginners, and also some best SQL Books for Advanced SQL Learners.

Still, if you find some of the Best SQL books are missing then please comment in the comment section. Thanks for reading the Best SQL books.