SQL: What it is and Why should you learn it?

 If you are here, then chances are that you know a little about SQL and are wondering if and why you should learn it. No need to worry as we've compiled all the reasons you need to learn SQL. But first, let's have a look at what SQL is.

What is SQL?

"Information is the oil of the 21st century and analytics is the combustion engine"- a famous quote that is true to the point. In our evergrowing world, with evergrowing technology, the data is also evergrowing and overgrowing.

Each day, a huge amount of data is created online. And large companies use this data to turn the world upside down with new innovations.

Well, all of this is only possible with the use of huge databases and SQL is the language of databases. SQL is a fourth-generation language (for reference: C, C++, Java, Javascript are some third-generation languages while Python is a fourth-gen language).

Reasons to learn SQL

We all know the importance of databases in the new world. And we know that SQL is the most prominent language to handle those databases.

But some would think,"Why not Excel, what is wrong with that?". We will be answering all that from different perspectives using the reasons given below. Now you have a basic idea of what SQL is, so now, let's talk about why you should learn it.

SQL is Famous

This is probably one of the reasons why you ended up here reading about SQL.' SQL is famous, and not just normal famous. It is "Famous". All the database engines like Oracle and others use SQL.

That means "Wherever I go, I see his face(SQL)". Kudos if you know what I did there ;). Jokes aside, Stackoverflow which you all probably know is the most famous website for coders carries a survey manually for the popularity of languages.

Javascript was first, HTML and CSS came second and SQL took the third position overcoming Python, JAVA, C, and all the rest. This backs up the fact that SQL is famous.

SQL is Common

SQL is very common and can be used among various databases. You say the name, and there are 80% chances that SQL is used for it.

Some of the most famous databases like MySQL database, Oracle, MS Server and Database, SQLite, and many others use SQL.

Not only these, all the WordPress sites, Facebook, and many others are based on MySQL and all the companies that use any kind of database use SQL for all the database-related tasks.

SQL isn't going anywhere

New and improved programming comes out every now and then. Older versions of some languages are getting taken over by the new ones. So the programming languages come and go.

That is not the case with SQL. Languages like Python and Ruby that integrate conventional programming with databases don't have a database language or framework of their own. They themselves use SQL.

So SQL isn't going anywhere. As long as the quantity of data is constantly increasing, SQL will be there to handle it.

Easy to learn

Every programmer has to go through various hassles just to get hold of one language, let alone think about learning more. Each language has its own pros and cons and is harder to learn.

SQL on the other hand uses simple syntax and a numerable amount of commands to perform all the tasks.

I myself learned it over my summer break which was two months long. So speaking as someone who has the experience, SQL is way easier to learn than Python, Java, C, or any other language.

Better than Excel

Someone who has knowledge about databases knows that Excel has ruled over that databases. So the question arises, "Why should you choose SQL over Excel?". The answer is rather simple.

SQL can hold much more data than Excel and sorting and filtering the data at the time of need is much more convenient than Excel.

Not just for developers

The best thing about SQL isn't just for developers. You don't need to be a computer geek to learn and use SQL. We've already mentioned that SQL is very easy to learn.

Business analysts, entrepreneurs, and many other people from other professions use SQL. It is in high demand.

So these are all the reasons that should convince you to learn SQL if you are in this field. For any other queries, follow us.