SQL in Action: Hands-On Techniques and Real-World Case Studies for Building, Querying, and Optimizing Fast, Scalable Databases

If you're a developer, data engineer, or DBA looking to master every facet of professional SQL from airtight schema design through high-performance queries and rock-solid production practices, SQL in Action is your all-in-one, hands-on guide. You'll work through real-world case studies, interactive labs, and end-to-end projects that prove each concept in practice. By the last chapter, you'll be confidently designing, querying, optimizing, and operating databases that scale, perform, and withstand real-world demands. Inside, you'll build and master: Schema fundamentals: primary, foreign, unique, and check constraints to enforce data integrity Indexing strategies: B-tree, covering, partial, and composite indexes tailored to your queries Core query techniques: SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY, LIMIT, IN, BETWEEN, and pattern matching for precise filters Aggregations and grouping: GROUP BY, HAVING, ROLLUP, CUBE, and GROUPING SETS for multidimensional roll-ups Advanced SQL: Common Table Expressions (CTEs), window functions (ROW_NUMBER, LAG/LEAD, moving averages), and recursive queries Execution plan analysis: EXPLAIN ANALYZE, identifying bottlenecks (scans, joins, sorts), and targeted rewrites Partitioning and sharding: range, list, hash, composite partitions; sharding keys and architectures for horizontal scale-out Transactions and ACID: isolation levels, lock contention, trigger-based balance enforcement, and two-phase commits Performance labs: benchmark slow reports, pre-aggregate with materialized views, and accelerate queries with targeted indexes Scaling principles: vertical vs. horizontal scaling, read replicas, read/write splitting, and distributed SQL solutions CI/CD for databases: versioned migrations, idempotent scripts, automated testing (unit, integration with Testcontainers), and safe deployments Monitoring & alerting: key metrics (latency, cache hit ratios, QPS), Prometheus/Grafana setups, and intelligent alert policies Security & access control: least-privilege roles, row-level security, encrypted columns, and audit-trail designs Real-world case studies: booking platforms, social-app analytics, financial reporting, messaging systems, and capstone projects Whether you're designing a transactional payment system, architecting a global analytics pipeline, or tuning a legacy data warehouse, SQL in Action gives you the proven patterns, step-by-step recipes, and deep insights you need to succeed in production environments.