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University of California, Davis

SQL for Data Science

University of California, Davis via Coursera

Overview

Prepare for a new career with $100 off Coursera Plus
Gear up for jobs in high-demand fields: data analytics, digital marketing, and more.
As data collection has increased exponentially, so has the need for people skilled at using and interacting with data; to be able to think critically, and provide insights to make better decisions and optimize their businesses. This is a data scientist, “part mathematician, part computer scientist, and part trend spotter” (SAS Institute, Inc.). According to Glassdoor, being a data scientist is the best job in America; with a median base salary of $110,000 and thousands of job openings at a time. The skills necessary to be a good data scientist include being able to retrieve and work with data, and to do that you need to be well versed in SQL, the standard language for communicating with database systems.

This course is designed to give you a primer in the fundamentals of SQL and working with data so that you can begin analyzing it for data science purposes. You will begin to ask the right questions and come up with good answers to deliver valuable insights for your organization. This course starts with the basics and assumes you do not have any knowledge or skills in SQL. It will build on that foundation and gradually have you write both simple and complex queries to help you select data from tables. You'll start to work with different types of data like strings and numbers and discuss methods to filter and pare down your results.

You will create new tables and be able to move data into them. You will learn common operators and how to combine the data. You will use case statements and concepts like data governance and profiling. You will discuss topics on data, and practice using real-world programming assignments. You will interpret the structure, meaning, and relationships in source data and use SQL as a professional to shape your data for targeted analysis purposes.

Although we do not have any specific prerequisites or software requirements to take this course, a simple text editor is recommended for the final project. So what are you waiting for? This is your first step in landing a job in the best occupation in the US and soon the world!

Syllabus

  • Getting Started and Selecting & Retrieving Data with SQL
    • In this module, you will be able to define SQL and discuss how SQL differs from other computer languages. You will be able to compare and contrast the roles of a database administrator and a data scientist, and explain the differences between one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many relationships with databases. You will be able to use the SELECT statement and talk about some basic syntax rules. You will be able to add comments in your code and synthesize its importance.
  • Filtering, Sorting, and Calculating Data with SQL
    • In this module, you will be able to use several more new clauses and operators including WHERE, BETWEEN, IN, OR, NOT, LIKE, ORDER BY, and GROUP BY. You will be able to use the wildcard function to search for more specific or parts of records, including their advantages and disadvantages, and how best to use them. You will be able to discuss how to use basic math operators, as well as aggregate functions like AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX, MIN, and others to begin analyzing our data.
  • Subqueries and Joins in SQL
    • In this module, you will be able to discuss subqueries, including their advantages and disadvantages, and when to use them. You will be able to recall the concept of a key field and discuss how these help us link data together with JOINs. You will be able to identify and define several types of JOINs, including the Cartesian join, an inner join, left and right joins, full outer joins, and a self join. You will be able to use aliases and pre-qualifiers to make your SQL code cleaner and efficient.
  • Modifying and Analyzing Data with SQL
    • In this module, you will be able to discuss how to modify strings by concatenating, trimming, changing the case, and using the substring function. You will be able to discuss the date and time strings specifically. You will be able to use case statements and finish this module by discussing data governance and profiling. You will also be able to apply fundamental principles when using SQL for data science. You'll be able to use tips and tricks to apply SQL in a data science context.

Taught by

Sadie St. Lawrence

Reviews

4.0 rating, based on 5 Class Central reviews

4.6 rating at Coursera based on 15924 ratings

Start your review of SQL for Data Science

  • This 4-week course introduces basic methods in manipulating SQL databases including: filtering, sorting, calculating data with SQL, subqueries and joins in SQL, working with text strings, date and time strings, and case statements with SQL. This course is helpful for SQL beginners to have basic skills in SQL. But if you want to perform well in data analysis with SQL, more practical exercises are needed.
  • Excellent course teaching you the core concepts of SQL, the basics you need when you want to enter the data science world. SQL is required in almost every job as a data scientist.
    After finishing this course you can comfortably start your data analysis with SQL. It will not provide you with all the nitty-gritty details of every SQL variant, therefore you will further need to study and read the docs.

    This course is a good starting point to become an SQL expert, an enabler to getting started. From here onwards I would advise you to practice a lot and apply the best practices explained in the course.
  • Profile image for DietCoke
    DietCoke
    I do not recommend this course. This course introducesvery basic stuff but requires you to do more advanced quizs and assignments. For example, the instructor doesn't talk about how to iterate each columns in a table, but in a quiz we need to do so…
  • Profile image for Maria Clarissa Fionalita
    Maria Clarissa Fionalita
    This is such an excellent beginner SQL course.

    If you are seeking hard challenge however, prepare to be disappointed. The course just teach queries in SQLite but does not go in depth regarding data types nor table creation. This is because this course only teaches the fundamental skills of data scientist - to query and analyze data, not create database.

    The quiz and assignments are actually very easy, but if you make it complicated then you will go down the rabbit hole. The course is supposed to be fun and motivates you to learn SQL.

    I highly recommend if you know nothing about SQL or Data Science! It's a really good intro course!
  • Anonymous
    I accidentally wrote a duplicate review.

    Overall, highly recommended!

    I accidentally wrote a duplicate review.

    Overall, highly recommended!

    I accidentally wrote a duplicate review.

    Overall, highly recommended!

    I accidentally wrote a duplicate review.

    Overall, highly recommended!

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