EXCEL vs SQL
Excel and SQL are two of the most well-known and advanced tools for processing data. The words “Excel” and “SQL” are used in a lot of job descriptions, especially for data analyst jobs. What are these tools for working with data? Which is better, and which should you learn more about?
WHAT DOES EXCEL MEAN?
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet programme that can be used on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. It includes the ability to calculate, as well as graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. Excel is a programme that comes with Microsoft Office. Microsoft Excel is a computer programme that lets users store, change, and look at data using spreadsheets. In business analyst roles, the app is often used for quick calculations, summaries of data, and visualising data.
WHAT DOES SQL MEAN?
SQL is a computer language that was made for managing data in a relational database management system or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system.
Structured Query Language is what SQL is short for. Data analysts use SQL to take care of large databases and pull out important data for business purposes.
SQL is not a language that can be used for anything. SQL, unlike Python or Java, can’t be used to make complicated programmes. Instead, it can only be used to read, change, and search databases to turn unorganised data into tabular data.
EXCEL VS SQL?
EXCEL
Excel is well-known for its simplicity. The app shows a visual notepad that makes it easy to format and see information.
Excel is used in many fields and is taught in many schools because it is easy to use. If you’re a small business owner or part of a one-person team and you only have a few hundred thousand lines of data to work with, Excel is a great tool for you to:
• Manipulate data
• Utilize pivot tables to summarise data.
• Make things like charts, graphs, and tables to show the data.
• Make quick statistics, which are summaries of your data in numbers.
As you add more data to Excel, it slows down. In fact, Excel can’t store more than one million lines of data, and the tool starts to slow down well before that limit. Even though the tool looks nice, you shouldn’t use it if you’re working with a lot of data.
SQL
SQL is known for how fast and much it can do. It lets users work with a lot of raw data at once without slowing down, and it can easily handle data with more than a million fields. SQL queries are also stronger and more versatile than Excel formulas.
Data analysts use SQL to interact with huge databases by:
Data manipulation
Obtaining data
Data filtering
Data updating
Data combination
SQL is better than Excel at keeping data together. Each SQL cell can only hold one piece of data, like the date or the day of the week. Even though this way of extrapolating data takes a lot of time, it greatly reduces the chance of mistakes in calculations and data.
SQL can also be used with database management systems like Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. How each programme handles new data and gives users more control is different. But SQL is a general-purpose way to get to data.
SQL is the way to go if you want to work with large databases and need speed, accuracy, consistency, volume, and power.
SQL is not as easy to use as Excel. Excel has a graphical user interface and the ability to change data visually. SQL, on the other hand, is mostly about writing code to work with relational databases. Even though the query language is very powerful and has become the standard way to work with large amounts of data, it is harder to learn than simpler tools like Excel.
WHICH IS BETTER?
The answer to this question is totally dependent on how much data you have and what you intend to do with it. Excel is more than enough if you want to work with small amounts of data and find or show quick solutions.
SQL is the way to go if you want to protect your data better, have large databases, and need to merge datasets quickly. SQL lets users track changes to data and put limits on how other users can change data. Excel has less powerful options for keeping data integrity.
Learning SQL is not the same as learning Excel, and the same goes for the other way around. Both SQL and Excel have a learning curve, but many people think SQL is harder to learn than Excel. But knowing how to use one tool may make it much easier to learn how to use the other.
Most people who work with data know both Excel and SQL. In business, they use SQL to talk to big databases and Excel to solve problems with data analysis that need to be done quickly. If you want to be a good data analyst, you should learn both.
