If you are a computer science developer or a student, you must have heard enough about SQL. So, we will just cut to the chase and start with what you’re here looking for – best SQL books for this year.
Jump To
- 9 SQL Beginners Books and Expert Guides For You
- SQL QuickStart Guide
- SQL All-in-One For Dummies 3rd Edition
- SQL in 10 Minutes a Day, Sams Teach Yourself 5th Edition
- SQL Cookbook: Query Solutions and Techniques for Database Developers (Cookbooks (O’Reilly)) 1st Edition
- Learning SQL: Generate, Manipulate, and Retrieve Data 3rd Edition
- SQL Practice Problems: 57 beginning, intermediate, and advanced challenges for you to solve using a “learn-by-doing” approach
- SQL for Data Analytics: Perform fast and efficient data analysis with the power of SQL
- Murach’s SQL Server 2019 for Developers Illustrated Edition
- Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL — A Learner’s Guide 1st Edition
- Final Verdict
9 Top SQL Books To Enhance Your SQL Learning
1. SQL QuickStart Guide
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Walter Shields (Author) |
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Ideal for | Beginners |
| eBook | Yes |
It is one of the bestselling SQL books. The guide provides free access to the SQL browser app, a sample database, comprehensive quizzes, and other digital resources. It is widely used in college-level courses and is one of the most approachable books for beginners. In this guide, you will find everything you need to know to use the SQL programming language and amplify your chances of success in your career.
Every book has free lifetime access to several online resources that can help you master SQL. These include reference guides, cheat sheets, and workbooks.
What will you learn?
In this comprehensive book to learn SQL, you will study the following:
- Understanding of relational database management
- The basic structure of databases
- How to use SQL to retrieve and understand data no matter the scale of a database
- Important SQL queries, along with how and when to use them for the best effect
- Professional applications of SQL and how to “sell” your new SQL skills to your employer
Who should buy this book?
It is the best SQL beginners book and will benefit:
- A developer hoping to amplify their mastery of database management or expand their programming capabilities
- A project manager who wishes to understand their development team’s needs
- A decision maker or manager seeking deeper data-driven analysis
- People who want to amplify their job prospects or take their career to new heights
- Those with no experience in coding. Actually coding is easy to learn if you do it right.
- Job seekers who want to pad their skills and resume for a durable employability edge
- Developers who wish to amplify their mastery of full stack
- Someone hoping to prepare for a data-driven future
What do we not like?
The handbook is one of the best SQL books, but the eBook has many spammy ads.
2. SQL All-in-One for Dummies 3rd Edition
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Allen G. Taylor (Author) |
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Ideal for | Newbies |
| eBook | Yes |
Next, we have another top contender in our list of the best SQL books for beginners. It is a one-stop shop to help you find all details about SQL and SQL-based relational databases that you possibly need.
What will you learn?
This book will cover the following:
- Coping with issues arising in the SQL database creation and management
- Getting an insight into the latest SQL capabilities and updates
- Reference information on querying SQL-based databases in the SQL language
- Familiarity with relational databases and their importance to today’s organizations
Who should buy this book?
This book will benefit:
- Database admins
- Application programmers
- People who manage data
- Anyone who seeks detailed information about SQL databases and queries
What did we not like?
It is indeed the best book to learn SQL. But, there is fluff in the book that adds to the pages.
3. SQL in 10 Minutes a Day, Sams Teach Yourself 5th Edition
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Ben Forta (Author) |
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Ideal for | Advanced level students |
| eBook | Yes |
Good SQL knowledge is vital for anyone who hopes to interact with databases. You will find all the information required to do the task. As part of this book, expert and professional author Ben Forta takes you through the components of SQL you should know. Ben with his best SQL books ensures you learn everything systematically, methodically, and quickly that will take 10 minutes or less to complete.
What will you learn?
In this guide, you will learn the following:
- Simple data retrieval
- Use of joins
- Stored procedures
- Subqueries
- Table constraints
- Triggers
- Cursors
Who should read this book?
It is the best book to learn SQL for:
- Application Developer
- People trained in Database Administration
- Web Application Designer
- Mobile App Developer
- Microsoft Office Users
What did we not like?
It is one of the best advanced SQL books, but the pages are too small for you to read the code at one glance.
4. SQL Cookbook: Query Solutions and Techniques for Database Developers (Cookbooks (O’Reilly)) 1st Edition
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Anthony Molinaro (Author) |
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Ideal for | Database Developers |
| eBook | No |
As part of this SQL beginner’s book, you will discover that there is more to SQL than you know.
What will you learn?
In this guide, you will learn the following:
- Window functions
- Database-specific features
- Creating histograms
- Bucketization
- Pivoting rows into columns and vice versa
- Working with a moving range of values
- Generating running totals and subtotals
- Advanced data warehousing techniques
- Using SQL to parse through the characters, words, or delimited elements of a string
What did we not like?
In our view, it is one of the best SQL books, but there are multiple typos in it.
5. Learning SQL: Generate, Manipulate, and Retrieve Data 3rd Edition
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Alan Beaulieu (Author) |
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Ideal for | Beginners |
| eBook | Yes |
Next, we have an introductory book on SQL. In this book, every chapter comes with a self-contained lesson on SQL techniques or concepts. You will find some annotated examples and illustrations across the book, which make it interactive and engaging. There are some exercises, too, that help you practice every skill you have learned. If you wish to learn data interaction, this is the book for you.
What will you learn?
It is one of the best SQL books for beginners to learn the following:
- Knowing how datasets interact with queries
- SQL fundamentals for writing database applications
- Using SQL data statements to generate, manipulate, and retrieve data
- Studying the importance of subqueries
- Report generation
- Convert and play around with data using SQL’s built-in functions
- Understanding of the analytic functions
- Working with large databases
- Employing conditional logic in data statements
- Other administrative tasks
What did we not like?
It is the best book to learn SQL, but it lacks examples.
6. SQL Practice Problems: 57 beginning, intermediate, and advanced challenges for you to solve using a “learn-by-doing” approach
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Sylvia Moestl Vasilik (Author) |
| Rating | 4.4 |
| Ideal for | All levels |
| eBook | Yes |
In all honesty, finding basic SQL syntax information online is not challenging. But what’s tricky is finding real-world, well-designed problems that top when you deal with the data. Knowing how to solve these problems can provide you with the necessary skills and confidence to take you a step ahead in your career. So, if that’s what you seek, this is one of the best SQL books.
What will you learn?
- How to think in SQL
- Analyzing data problems
- SQL fundamentals
- Working towards SQL problems
- Complex descriptions of syntax
- Details on Insert, Update and Delete statements
- Differences between every single SQL variant
- How to write Select statements that return complex data
What do you need?
To solve the practice questions in this SQL beginner’s book, you will require a computer with Microsoft Windows.
What did we not like?
Its eBook is preferred Windows users, but Mac users may not appreciate the need to pay an extra buck for the professional package.
7. SQL for Data Analytics: Perform fast and efficient data analysis with the power of SQL
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Upom Malik (Author), Matt Goldwasser (Author), Benjamin Johnston (Author) |
| Rating | 4.4 |
| Ideal for | Intermediate and one of the best advanced SQL books |
| eBook | Yes |
It is one of the top SQL books and can be your first step toward becoming a fully qualified data analyst. Once you finish the book, you will have ample knowledge to employ SQL in your everyday business activities and look at data with the critical eye of analytics professionals.
What will you learn?
In this book, you will discover the following:
- How to explore large relational datasets
- Various statistical techniques for data analysis
- Import and export data using a text file and PostgreSQL
- Skills to move beyond basic SQL
- Perform advanced statistical calculations using the WINDOW function
- Understanding and finding patterns in data
- Using SQL queries and subqueries to prepare data for analysis, and so much more.
Who should read this book?
- Anyone well-versed with the SQL basics who wish to know how to use them to acquire business insights from data
- Database engineer who wants to transition into the analytics
- Backend engineer who wants to develop a deeper understanding of production data
- Data scientists interested in SQL or business analysts who are looking to improve their data analytics skills using SQL
What do you need?
Unfortunately, it is not one of the best SQL books for beginners. Thus, you require basic database concepts and SQL clarity to understand this book.
What did we not like?
It lacks a proper structure.
8. Murach’s SQL Server 2019 for Developers Illustrated Edition
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Joel Murach (Author), Bryan Syverson (Author) |
| Rating | 4.6 |
| Ideal for | Developers |
| eBook | No |
Once you have figured out a roadmap to learn SQL, this book is a must.
What will you learn?
In this one of the best SQL books, you will discover the following:
- SQL statements to retrieve and update the data in a database
- SQL statements that you use every day
- How to design a database and how to implement the design
- Creating a professional database application
- Working with database multiple features
- Awareness of the DBA-related issues
- Ability to handle challenges that may come your way
What did we not like?
It has one of the best content, but its organization could have been better.
9. Head First SQL: Your Brain on SQL — A Learner’s Guide 1st Edition
 |
Check Price |
| Author | Lynn Beighley (Author) |
| Rating | 4.4 |
| Ideal for | Beginner |
| eBook | Yes |
Head First SQL is our last pick on this top SQL books list. It is a rich book full of visually appealing content. It is not text-heavy but full of illustrations to keep you engaged and interested.
What will you learn?
Here are some things you will learn with this book:
- SQL fundamentals
- Basic statements and queries to do database manipulation
- How to have power over data
Who should read this book?
Anyone who has written simple SQL queries for database interaction but wishes for more will love this book.
What did we not like?
It may seem too elementary for some learners.
Related: SQL Interview Prep Questions
To Sum Up.
So, these are the top nine books for SQL on the internet. They are all good picks, but we have a favorite. It is the SQL All-in-One for Dummies 3rd Edition. It is one of the best SQL beginner’s books. If you skimp through it, there cannot be a better book for new learners.
Also, if you need to back your learning with ample practice, you can opt for the SQL Practice Problems: 57 beginning, intermediate, and advanced challenges to solve using a “learn-by-doing” approach.
Happy learning!
