For a variety of reasons, more people are coming to the conclusion that careers in technology fields are the most secure. A tight jobs market happens to be one of those reasons. Formerly respectable work such as food service and shop-keeping now cause workers to have to scramble to make ends meet. And forget teaching! Those masters are leaving the profession in droves. Low pay is just one of the reasons why.
Amidst all the chaos the coronavirus pandemic caused, a bright light shone through. Anyone who could work remotely did not suffer as severe an economic impact as those working in, say, the hospitality industry. Granted, with all the technology at our disposal, even teachers can work remotely. And didn't we see (or hear about) plenty of other professionals managing their workload via Zoom?
So we need to look for work that pays well, that can be done remotely and, most crucially, is not subject to job loss. Computer programming fits the bill. Learning how to code is not hard but figuring out which programming languages to learn is. SQL would be a good place to start. Read on to find out why.
SQL Language Overview
First, to answer the title's question: is SQL a programming language? Yes. SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It is a computer language programmers use to retrieve data stored in a relational database system. SQL can also function to manipulate and control data in relational databases. In short, SQL is the language of database operations.
If you are completely new to coding, you might question what relational databases are. To put it simply, they are databases that organise data in table format - in columns and rows. If you've ever used Microsoft (MS) Access or the Libre Office (LO) equivalent, you created a relational database. And you've used SQL, the standard language of relational database systems. MS Access, LO Base and others are called Relational Database Management Systems or RDBMS.
Note that SQL is a query language. Its function is to operate databases. Unlike C language used to drive computer operating systems, SQL is the handshake between you and the data you access. It makes it possible for you to access data and define it. You can create and control tables and databases with SQL. And you can embed data in another programming system that contains SQL libraries.
SQL Language History
At the time SQL was written, International Business Machines - IBM was king. That was in 1970, the date of Edgar F Codd's paper titled A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Databanks. This paper posited that all data is relational; thus, it must be represented in relations. There's a fundamental truth to that assertion. A single data point means nothing; it must be considered in relation to other data points.
But how could anyone aggregate and organise data in such a way that users may select which records they want to examine and use? IBM employees and computer scientists Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce got busy coding for such a function. Thus, the SEQUEL programming language came to be. You can see how elegantly the names blend into each other, can't you?
SQL didn't hit the market until years after its development. In 1979, Oracle - then known as Relational Software, offered a commercial SQL release named Oracle V2. As database manipulation and control graduated from IBM punch cards to the strictly digital realm, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) declared SQL the standard language for relational database control and communication. Of all the types of programming languages you could learn, this one shares that distinction with only a few others.
SQL Language Applications
You're probably aware that anytime you use any web-based system - Google, YouTube or Amazon, those systems collect data. They're not the only ones. Your school, work and local government also collect and store data. Regardless of the entity collecting and using the data, that information is stored in an RDBMS.
- MySQL is an oft-used, open-source RDBMS. It's widely available and high-performing; it offers strong data protection. It's also at the lower end of the cost-of-ownership scale.
- MS SQL Server: developed by Microsoft, it offers database mirroring and snapshots, a ranking function and Extensible Markup Language (XML) integration. It too is secure, dependable and fast.
- Oracle: the original SQL database now supports multi-user access. It can function with all major computer operating systems.
- MS Access: an entry-level database builder and management system; perfect for smaller data-driven projects. Office 360 comes with Access built-in. (Libre Office, an open-source office suite of products offers a comparable RDBS)
Once data is compiled using such an RDBMS, it can then be used for any number of purposes. Governments might want to analyse voter data, for example, so they will query a database for all registered voters. Their query statement might specify variables such as location, gender, age, education level and political party affiliation.
A more commercial venture might query a database to get an idea of the type of things you like to buy. For example, they'll want to know how much money you usually spend, where and how often you shop and, if you buy on credit, whether you pay in instalments. They will write their statements to reflect those parameters.
As for online database queries... Well, simply type "What types of programming languages?" into your favourite web browser. You might notice that, months from now you're still getting adverts for coding courses. Indeed, you might have already noticed that your Google queries lead the system to continuously deliver ads related to query statements you made weeks ago.
SQL Language Particulars
We're lucky to have search engines. We don't have to learn a whole new language to query a database. After all, that's all search engines are. However, if you work in a bank, a business or in any other industry, you're in a different kettle of fish. You need to know how to create a table and control the data the business needs.
And so, we come to SQL syntax, statements, operators and databases. When you create a table, you need to specify what type of data each column will contain and you need to set parameters. For example, to use exact data, you have to specify what type of data it is - a decimal value, a monetary value and so on. And then, you should set 'from' and 'to' values.
Every data type has its own designation. For instance, to set up a date range, you would insert 'datetime' as the data type. For small monetary numbers, you would insert 'smallmoney' as your data type. These distinct statements serve as commands that limit the type of data you can enter into that column or row.
For as venerable a language as SQL is, its syntax is fairly simple. A single keyword will initiate an action. Indeed, every SQL statement starts with a keyword: select, delete, update, create, show... Once you know which action you need to perform, you only need to type that statement and the parameters it will apply to. For example, a command like 'SELECT column 1, column, 3, column 8 from table_sales' will call up data from only those columns in that table.
The most important takeaway: SQL is not case-sensitive. Note that we typed 'select' in all-caps; that was just for display purposes. Unlike the Ruby programming language, SQL doesn't care which case you write in. However, if you use MySQL DBMS, you have to be sure your cases match those used to create the database.
Why Learn SQL Language?
Today's world is nothing if not data-driven. Everything from the YouTube videos you watch to those new shoes you bought are data points to be collected, managed and applied. There's no such thing as too much data. That is unless you're analysing it, in which case you need to select specific data sets. Isn't it great, then, that SQL makes building and managing databases so easy?
Databases are not one-and-done affairs. There will always be more data to compile, sort and manage. There will always be someone looking for specific data that only a programmer trained in SQL can efficiently call forth. Now that your question - Is SQL a programming language? - has been answered, why not learn it?
Like the Python programming language, SQL language is easy to master. However, unlike Python or any other programming language, it's not used to write executable computer programs. The SQL language syntax is straightforward, consisting of a twin handful of commands. You don't even have to worry about a misplaced comma, curly bracket or capitalised letter.
If you too have realised that future job security relies on technological knowledge, SQL language might be your entry point. For you, the value of learning SQL language lies in client-side services. A company may have already compiled a lot of data or have access to a large database. However, they might not have tapped into that data's full potential yet. As an SQL expert, you can show the business how to maximise that information for maximum profit.
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