There's a brand new Specialization on Coursera that will take you from basic to advanced SQL skills using PostgreSQL, the highly popular open source SQL database.

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The Postgre SQL For Everybody Specialization comes from the University of Michigan. It has been devised and is taught by Charles Severance, a.k.a. Dr. Chuck, who will be well known to many from his other courses including the Python for Everybody Specialization. This new specialization is at intermediate level and participants are expected to have a basic understanding of Python, equivalent to completion of the first two courses of Python for Everybody.

In the Welcome video of the first course Dr Chuck explains how in the other courses he teaches he repeatedly covers basic SQL and that students have often told him that they like the SQL part of the classes and have asked for more. He also addresses why he has chosen PostrgreSQL as the open source database on which to base the class. It is worth repeating his concluding remarks:

I have taken a look at Postgres and I'm happy with what I see. The Postgres community is a very, very good open source community. ...They have been doing this for 20 years and it is an advanced SQL database. It's solid, it scales. Amazon bases its stuff on Postgres, and so it is time, I think, for us to take a really serious look at Postgres. So I'm happy that my first foray into advanced SQL is to introduce you to Postgres. So I hope that you will be as big a fan of Postgres as I am once this course is complete.

Earlier this year we reported that PostgreSQL Is DB-Engines DBMS of the Year For 2020 and while Postgres might not be the first database that comes to your mind having heard Dr Chuck itemize the competition I can see why it has risen to be top of the popularity stakes and a great choice for a deep dive into SQL techniques.

There are four courses in the specialization, each of which is billed as a 4-week course at an average of 3 hours per week.

1. Database Design and Basic SQL in PostgreSQL
   Learn about the historical design of databases and the use of SQL in the PostgreSQL environment. Using SQL techniques and common commands (INSERT INTO, WHERE, ORDER BY, ON DELETE CASCADE, etc) create tables, column types and define the schema of your data in PostgreSQL and learn about data modeling and how to represent one-to-many and many-to-many relationships in PostgreSQL. Students will do hands-on assignments creating tables, inserting data, designing data models, creating relational structures and inserting and querying relational data in tables.
   
   

2. Intermediate PostgreSQL
   Covers a wide range of SQL techniques, beyond basic CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations in PostgreSQL. You will learn the specifics of aggregation, transactions, reading and parsing CSV files and inserting data into a database. You’ll also take a look at how PostgreSQL handles and indexes text data. Students will do assignments that alter table schemas, create stored procedures, construct advanced queries, explore sorting and grouping query data, and techniques for working with text in databases including regular expressions.

3. JSON and Natural Language Processing in PostgreSQL
   Learn about how PostgreSQL creates and uses inverted indexes for JSON and natural language content. We will use various sources of data for our databases, including access to an online API and spidering its data and storing the data in a JSON column in PostgreSQL. Students will explore how full-text inverted indexes are structured and build their own inverted indexes and then make use of PostgreSQL built-in capabilities to support full-text indexes.
   
   
4. Database Architecture, Scale, and NoSQL with Elasticsearch
   

   Explore database architecture, PostgreSQL, and various scalable deployment configurations and see how PostgreSQL implements basic CRUD operations and indexes, and review how transactions and the ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) requirements are implemented. Students examine the Elasticsearch NoSQL database as an example of a BASE-style (Basic Availability, Soft State, Eventual Consistency) approach, as well as compare and contrast the advantages and challenges associated with ACID and BASE databases.

While you can audit all of the videos and other material of the courses in this specialization for free, if you want to participate in the graded exercises and gain certificates for each of the courses you complete and eventually for the entire Specialization you need to Enroll, paying a monthly subscription until complete it. You can start with a 7-day free trial which lets you discover that the course fulfills your expectations.

Financial aid is available and the Postgre SQL For Everybody Specialization and its component courses are also included in Coursera Plus, the subscription that gives access to 3,000+ of Coursera courses, which is the majority of those available.  

Coursera Plus, which means you can enroll in several courses simultaneously and therefore takes away all the angst of trying out new things when you have to pay for each course separately, Subscriptions are available on a Monthly basis, costing $59 per month which you can cancel at anytime or as an Annual subscription, costing $399 for a whole year. In both cases you can start with a 7-day free trial and remember that many employers are happy to reimburse the cost of a Coursera Plus subscription. 

Postgre SQL For Everybody appears to be very popular, attracting high ratings. Already over 2000 students have enrolled in the Specialization and over 3,500 on the first of its courses. It is self-paced so as soon as you Enroll, or start to audit it, you can dive in without delay and discover why others think it so  good.

More Information 

Postgre SQL For Everybody Specialization

Python for Everybody Specialization

Coursera Plus Annual

Coursera Plus Monthly

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