Chapter 2. Connecting to Databases

In this chapter, we will continue our journey through the data analysis life cycle. We are still in the first step of the cycle and that is gathering data. I have dedicated a separate chapter to connect to databases as I feel that this topic is important and merits its own space. You will soon realize that a lot of data you work with is present in a database. Data, such as customer information, product information, log data, and a lot of information will be found in a database. Excel is a good introductory tool that you can use to get the data out of a database. Ultimately, learning how to query a database using one of the various flavors of Structured Query Language (SQL) should be your goal but until then Excel is your go-to tool.

In this chapter, we will read the various tables in a Microsoft SQL Server database. I have chosen the Microsoft SQL Server database because apart from Oracle, this is one of the most popular databases you will be interacting with.