Database Fundamentals

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A free, vendor-neutral textbook on databases built on PostgreSQL: the relational model, SQL mastery, database design and normalization, performance and internals, application integration, NoSQL and beyond, and database administration.

Part I: Part I — Foundations

1. Part I — Foundations
2. Chapter 1: What Is a Database? Why Spreadsheets Break and Databases Don't
3. Chapter 2: Setting Up PostgreSQL, Your First Database, and the Tools You'll Use
4. Chapter 3: The Relational Model — Tables, Rows, Columns, Keys, and the Mathematical Foundation of SQL
5. Chapter 4: Relational Algebra — The Operations Underneath Every SQL Query

Part II: Part II — SQL Mastery

1. Part II — SQL Mastery
2. Chapter 5: SELECT, FROM, WHERE — Your First Queries
3. Chapter 6: JOINs — Connecting Tables, the Most Important SQL Skill
4. Chapter 7: Aggregation — GROUP BY, HAVING, and Summarizing Data
5. Chapter 8: Built-in Functions — Strings, Numbers, Dates, and Type Conversion
6. Chapter 9: Subqueries — Queries Inside Queries
7. Chapter 10: Set Operations — UNION, INTERSECT, EXCEPT
8. Chapter 11: Common Table Expressions and Recursive Queries
9. Chapter 12: Window Functions — Analytics Without Losing Row Detail
10. Chapter 13: Data Modification — INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and UPSERT
11. Chapter 14: Data Definition — CREATE, ALTER, DROP, and Building Your Schema
12. Chapter 15: Views, Materialized Views, and Functions — Reusable SQL Objects
13. Chapter 16: Advanced SQL — JSON, Full-Text Search, Arrays, and PostgreSQL Superpowers

Part III: Part III — Database Design

1. Part III — Database Design
2. Chapter 17: Entity-Relationship Modeling — Drawing the Blueprint Before Building
3. Chapter 18: From ER Diagram to Tables — Translating Your Design into DDL
4. Chapter 19: Normalization — Eliminating Redundancy and Protecting Data Integrity
5. Chapter 20: Denormalization — When Breaking the Rules Is the Right Decision
6. Chapter 21: Data Modeling Patterns — Solving Common Design Problems
7. Chapter 22: Schema Migration and Evolution — Changing Your Database Without Breaking Everything

Part IV: Part IV — Performance and Internals

1. Part IV — Performance and Internals
2. Chapter 23: Indexing — The Data Structure That Makes Databases Fast
3. Chapter 24: Query Optimization — Reading EXPLAIN Plans and Making Queries Fast
4. Chapter 25: Table Partitioning — Scaling a Table Beyond a Single Heap
5. Chapter 26: Transaction Management — ACID Properties and Keeping Data Consistent
6. Chapter 27: Concurrency Control — What Happens When Two Users Touch the Same Data
7. Chapter 28: Database Internals — How PostgreSQL Stores and Retrieves Your Data

Part V: Part V — Application Integration

1. Part V — Application Integration
2. Chapter 29: Connecting Applications to Databases — Python, psycopg2, and Access Patterns
3. Chapter 30: ORMs — SQLAlchemy, Object-Relational Mapping, and When Abstraction Helps vs. Hides
4. Chapter 31: Bulk Data Operations and ETL Foundations — COPY, Loading, and Moving Data at Scale
5. Chapter 32: Database Security — SQL Injection, Access Control, Encryption, and Protecting Your Data

Part VI: Part VI — Beyond Relational

1. Part VI — Beyond Relational
2. Chapter 33: NoSQL — Document, Key-Value, Column-Family, and Graph
3. Chapter 34: Data Warehousing — Star Schemas, Dimensional Modeling, and Databases for Analytics
4. Chapter 35: Distributed Databases — Replication, Sharding, and the CAP Theorem
5. Chapter 36: Time-Series, Vector, and Specialized Databases — The Right Tool for the Right Data
6. Chapter 37: The Database Decision — How to Choose the Right Database for Your Application

Part VII: Part VII — Administration and Career

1. Part VII — Administration and Career
2. Chapter 38: Database Administration — Backup, Monitoring, Tuning, and Keeping the Lights On
3. Chapter 39: Capstone — Your Complete Database Application, Designed, Built, Optimized, and Documented
4. Chapter 40: The Database Career — From Junior DBA to Data Architect

Appendices

1. Appendix A — PostgreSQL Setup Guide
2. Appendix B — The Mercado Practice Database
3. Appendix C — SQL Quick Reference
4. Appendix D — PostgreSQL Data Types Reference
5. Appendix E — Relational Algebra Reference
6. Appendix F — Normalization Reference
7. Appendix G — EXPLAIN and Tuning Reference
8. Appendix H — psql and Tooling Reference
9. Appendix I — SQL Cookbook
10. Appendix J — SQL Dialect Differences
11. Answers to Selected Exercises
12. Glossary
13. Bibliography & Resources
14. Index

Database Fundamentals

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