Advanced SQL in Practice: Performance, Optimization and Data Engineering

Tired of SQL books that only teach syntax? This one is different. This book series was created for data engineers facing the chaotic reality of the corporate world. More than just code, you’ll learn to see, question, and solve complex business problems using SQL as your fundamental tool for interacting with data—and sometimes directly with clients. The situations presented here reflect the complexity of the real world, where requirements are often vague, and you need to translate pain points into metrics and choose the best technical approach, explaining everything clearly and concisely.
Get ready for Real-World Cases from the Data Battlefield: Dive into scenarios inspired by firsthand experiences in banking, insurance, energy, e-commerce, and industry. You’ll find examples presented in a raw and direct manner, a model born from the practice of dealing with everyday uncertainties and ambiguities as a data engineer. The focus is on the why behind the code, the business context, and the impact of decisions on data architecture. Why is SQL the Essential Language for Modern Data Engineers? In such a vast technological landscape, SQL remains one of the most powerful and versatile tools in data engineering. It can solve a wide range of analytics and engineering problems without becoming a bottleneck in modern processing engines. SQL is the universal language of data, seamlessly interacting with Spark, Scala, Databricks, Snowflake, and many other technologies. This first volume is your essential foundation for building a solid and practical understanding of SQL, directly applicable to your day-to-day work as a data engineer.
In This Volume, You Will Learn: Chapter 1: Review and Essential Fundamentals – Strengthen the crucial pillars of SQL, ensuring a solid foundation for future challenges.
Chapter 2: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them – Identify and prevent frequent pitfalls that even experienced professionals encounter, writing cleaner and more efficient code from the start. Chapter 3: Advanced SQL in Practice – Expand your toolkit with powerful techniques to tackle sophisticated data challenges: Common Table Expressions (CTEs): Structure and simplify complex queries. Window Functions: Perform advanced analytics over result sets. JSON Data Manipulation: Master essential techniques for working with semi-structured data. MERGE Command: Optimize data insertion, updates, and deletions. Transaction Concepts: Ensure data integrity and consistency By the end of this volume, you will not only have a solid understanding of SQL fundamentals and advanced techniques but also a practical perspective on how to apply this knowledge to solve real-world business problems—avoiding common errors and adopting best practices from the very beginning of your data journey.