After spending the last few weeks learning Excel, Power Query, Power BI, DAX and data modelling, today we finally started SQL.
We started from the very beginning.
What is SQL: Structured Query Language
What is a database?
One explanation that helped me understand it was to think of a database like a warehouse.
A warehouse is where things are stored and organised so they can be managed and found when needed.
A database works in a similar way, except what we're storing is data.
We then learnt about SQL and its different sublanguages:
- DDL: Data Definition Language
- DML: Data Manipulation Language
- DCL: Data Control Language
We also talked about some of the objects that make up a database, including databases, tables, columns and records.
Data types
After that, we moved on to data types.
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We looked at different types of numerical, text, date/time and money data.
Some of the example9⁹s we covered were: Tiny, SmallTiny, Int, BigInt, CHAR, VARCHAR, TEXT, Date, SmallDateTime, MONEY, SmallMoney etc
There were quite a few new terms to take in, but one thing that stood out to me was the importance of choosing the appropriate data type.
It's not just about whether the data can fit.
The type you choose also affects how the data is stored and managed, so you need to think about the kind of information you're working with.
A random hello
Something else happened today that I didn't plan for.
I was at the Ilorin Innovation Hub, working on my SQL code, when someone passing by noticed what I was doing and stopped to say hello.
Her name is Bashirat.
We started talking and ended up sharing our experiences so far in data, what we’re learning and how our journeys have been going.
We eventually connected on LinkedIn.
It was a simple interaction, but I enjoyed the conversation.
I guess that's one of the nice things about learning around other people. You're not necessarily going there to network, but sometimes you meet someone who is also learning, and you get to exchange experiences.
So, that's Day 1 of Week 5.
See you on Day 2
#SQL #DataAnalytics #DataAnalyst #LearningInPublic #Database #Data
