What is a Mix?
Mixes are at the centre of Connect Mix Share. Mixes allow you to transform your connected data in your workspace. You will need to Connect at least one of your data sources to get started, and create one or more mixes to be able to Share your data.
Mixes allow you to organise, combine, enhance and protect your connected data using SQL queries. This is a powerful but simple programming language that runs the majority of the world's databases.
What is SQL?
What is SQL?
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standard programming language specifically designed for managing and manipulating databases. It allows you to retrieve, insert, update, and delete data in a database, making it an essential tool for anyone working with data. SQL is used to communicate with a database and is the most commonly used language for database queries, helping to organise large amounts of data and make sense of it.
Why do we use SQL?
Why do we use SQL?
There are two primary reasons we use SQL within Mixes:
It provides you with the most common but flexible method of transforming your data in just a few lines of code.
It's natively supported by your Connect Mix Share database and therefore provides the most efficient way of querying your connected data.
Do you need to know SQL?
Do you need to know SQL?
While we highly advise learning the basics of SQL (the SELECT function), it is not essential to use Connect Mix Share. We can support you in the creation of your mixes via our onboarding process, tools and partner network.
What can SQL do?
What can SQL do?
SQL allows you to transform your data. You can use it to:
Sort
Join
Aggregate
Group
Summarise
Cleanse
Anonymise
Validate
Transform
Calculate
Limit
Deduce
Compare
Normalise
Merge
Segment
And more...
Where can I learn SQL?
Where can I learn SQL?
There are many resources online for complete beginners to professional data analysts. Codecademy and W3Schools offer great free tutorials to get started.
A SQL query can be as simple as selecting all of your connected data:
SELECT * FROM your_data
A little more complex by filtering your results:
SELECT * FROM your_data WHERE name = 'Joe'
Or more advanced by joining data sources:
SELECT * FROM your_data JOIN more_data ON your_data.id = more_data.id
Your SQL query results will be displayed as a table, showing you the selected rows and columns that meet your query conditions.
🛟 Not everyone is a SQL expert. We know that. We can support you creating Mixes through our integrated AI tools and via our trusted specialist partners.
Creating and managing a mix typically follows the steps and processes below:
1. Creating Mixes
You can add a new Mix via the 'Create a mix' button on the Mix page. Once you've entered a name for your Mix, you'll be taken to a page that contains the available data, query editor and results.
Available Data
This is a list of all of your connected data from your connections. It will be displayed as connection name, table name and columns. To use a table or column within your Mix, simply click on its name and it will automatically populate in the query editor.
Query Editor
This appears at the top of the page (to the right of the available data). This is where you will enter your SQL queries. The editor will automatically highlight SQL syntax, making it easier to write compliant queries. When you're happy with your query, you can click save and run to save the query and get the results.
Results
When you run your query, the results will appear below the query editor. See below for more information on running mixes.
2. Running Mixes
Results of your Mix queries are displayed on the same page as your editor and available data, making it easy to make changes or add new data as it becomes available. The results are displayed after your first 'Save & Run'.
The results within your Mix are live and will change as soon as your connected data has changed or updated. There's no need to save and/or run the query when you need the latest data - it happens automatically.