🚀 Contoso Database Setup Guide

A comprehensive guide to setting up the Contoso database with sample data for analysis and testing.

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📋 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

• PostgreSQL installed on your system
• Git installed (to clone the repository)
• At least 2GB of free disk space
• 7-Zip or similar tool to extract .7z archives

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🔧 Step 1: Add PostgreSQL to Environment Variables

Windows

1. Locate your PostgreSQL bin directory

   • Default location: C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\<version>\bin

2. Add to PATH

   • Right-click on This PC or My Computer → Properties
   • Click Advanced system settings → Environment Variables
   • Under System variables, find and select Path → Click Edit
   • Click New and add your PostgreSQL bin path
   • Click OK on all windows to save

3. Verify installation

   psql --version

macOS

1. Add to PATH (if installed via Homebrew)

   echo 'export PATH="/Library/PostgreSQL/18/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
   source ~/.zshrc

2. For Postgres.app users

   echo 'export PATH="/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/latest/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
   source ~/.zshrc

3. Verify installation

   psql --version

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📥 Step 2: Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/muhssamy/Contoso-Analytics.git
cd Contoso-Analytics

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💾 Step 3: Download and Extract CSV Files

1. Download the dataset

   Download the CSV files from the official release:

   https://github.com/sql-bi/Contoso-Data-Generator-V2-Data/releases/download/ready-to-use-data/csv-10m.7z
   

2. Extract the archive

   Extract the .7z file using 7-Zip or your preferred extraction tool

3. Move CSV files to the project

   ⚠️ Important: Copy only the .csv files (not the folder) into your project's csv-10m directory

   your-project/
   └── csv-10m/
       ├── customers.csv
       ├── products.csv
       ├── sales.csv
       ├── contoso_load.sql
       └── ... (other CSV files)
   

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🗄️ Step 4: Create the Contoso Database

Run the following command to create a new database:

psql -U postgres -c "CREATE DATABASE contoso;"

You'll be prompted for your PostgreSQL password.

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📊 Step 5: Load the Data

Execute the SQL script to import all CSV data into the database:

psql -U postgres -d contoso -f csv-10m/contoso_load.sql

This process may take several minutes depending on your system specifications and the size of the dataset.

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✅ Verification

After loading, verify your setup:

-- Connect to the database
psql -U postgres -d contoso

-- Check tables
\dt

-- Check row counts
SELECT 
    schemaname,
    tablename,
    n_live_tup as row_count
FROM pg_stat_user_tables
ORDER BY n_live_tup DESC;

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🎯 Next Steps

Your Contoso database is now ready! You can:

• Run analytical queries
• Build dashboards and reports
• Practice SQL skills
• Test ETL pipelines

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🐛 Troubleshooting

Issue: psql command not found

• Solution: Ensure PostgreSQL bin directory is properly added to PATH and restart your terminal

Issue: Permission denied when creating database

• Solution: Make sure you're using a PostgreSQL superuser account (default: postgres)

Issue: CSV files not loading

• Solution: Verify that CSV files are directly in the csv-10m folder, not in a subfolder

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📚 Resources

• PostgreSQL Documentation
• Contoso Data Generator

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Happy Querying! 🎉