DuckDB in Action. Mark Needham, Michael Hunger, Michael Simons

DuckDB in Action is a practical and in-depth guide to mastering DuckDB, the lightweight yet powerful in-process analytical database designed for fast, efficient data analysis — right from your laptop or within your application.

What this book covers:

Written by experienced practitioners from the data and developer communities, Mark Needham, Michael Hunger, and Michael Simons walk readers through using DuckDB for real-world data workflows — from exploration and querying to integration with tools like Python, Pandas, R, and Jupyter notebooks.

Key concepts you'll learn:

• Getting started with DuckDB: Installation, fundamentals, and its unique in-process architecture

• Working with structured data: Reading from Parquet, CSV, and database files

• Performant SQL analytics: Writing queries optimized for analytical workloads

• Integration with ecosystems: Using DuckDB with Python, R, and other modern data tools

• Handling large datasets locally: Without needing full-scale cloud infrastructure

• Data engineering use cases: Transformations, joins, aggregations, and pipelines

Who it's for:

This book is perfect for data analysts, engineers, and developers who want to leverage local-first analytics, reduce dependence on heavyweight infrastructure, or streamline their data workflows without sacrificing performance. Whether you're prototyping ML models or wrangling big CSV files, DuckDB in Action teaches you how to do it faster and smarter.