Dealing With Databases? SQL Is Your Friend
SQL, or Structured Query Language, is used to access and modify data held in databases. SQL was developed by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce at IBM in the early 1970s. It was originally called SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language) but later had to change its name as another business owned that name as a trademark. A few letters were discarded, and SQL was born.
What Does SQL Do?
Consider a website like LinkedIn; there’s a lot of data to be stored and managed. LinkedIn needs to store your name, job title, work history, contacts, posts and much, much, more. All that data is organized and stored in a database, but to be useful, it needs to be accessible — that’s where SQL comes in.
In a sense, SQL is a middleman. It connects the front-end (computers and other endpoints) with back-end databases (hosted on servers).
SQL contains many important commands that enable you to interact with this data, including:
· SELECT — extracts data from a database
· DELETE — deletes data stored on a database
· CREATE DATABASE — creates a new database
· INSERT INTO — puts your data into a database
· ALTER DATABASE — makes changes to a database
· CREATE TABLE — creates a new table within a database
· CREATE INDEX — creates a new search key
These commands sound simple, but used correctly they can be very powerful, allowing users to easily modify and manipulate large volumes of data.
Databases, Databases, Databases
The databases you interact with are simply programs that allow users to store and organize data in a logical fashion. SQL is the most popular language used to access databases, but it will not work with every database.
Each database fits into one of two categories: they are either built on the SQL standard, or they are not, in which case they are known as NoSQL. There are many variations of SQL database with small variations. To make things more complicated, many of these databases have names that include the term SQL, such as MySQL and PostgreSQL! Confused yet?
Different SQL databases contain the same core SQL commands but can differ in other areas. Often, one database type is better for a task than others, and you often get developers who specialize in a particular database.
Why Learn SQL?
Learning SQL is a great way to add to your development skills and land a job. There are many advantages to learning SQL:
SQL is Very Popular
Businesses love SQL because it is a quick and efficient way of retrieving, viewing, and editing large volumes of data. StackOverflow report that SQL is the second most used programming language (JavaScript is first) and regularly used by 58% of full-stack developers, 53% of back-end developers, and 25% of front-end developers.
SQL is Easy and Cheap to Learn and Use
SQL is considerably easier to learn compared to a programming language such as C++. Additionally, many of the popular databases that use SQL (including MySQL, Postgres, and MariaDB) are open-source, which means it is easy to get started trying things out.
Popular and open-source — it is no surprise then, that SQL has a big community of developers. SQL and MySQL both have hundreds of topics posted on StackOverflow every day. We have also got a great forum for beginners at SoloLearn, with an SQL community of more than 1.2 million learners.
SQL Is In Demand
You might think that as SQL is popular with businesses and relatively easy to learn, there’d be too many learners for the volume of jobs — but you would be mistaken. CIO.com recently named SQL as one of the top ten tech skills most in demand in 2017.
Gooroo report that there are more than 27,000 SQL jobs advertised worldwide every month, with an average salary of US$79,000. Narrow the search down to just the United States, and there are still an impressive 13,500 jobs advertised each month with a competitive average salary of US$91,000 (statistics accurate at time of publication).
Learning SQL With SoloLearn
SoloLearn is a great way to learn SQL on-the-go. Our SQL course consists of 27 lessons across four modules, and allows you to learn from your mobile wherever you are. You will learn the basics and cement your new understanding with more than 100 quizzes.
Our SQL course includes:
· Module 1: Basic Concepts
· Module 2: Filtering, Functions, Subqueries
· Module 3: JOIN, Table Operations
· Module 4: Challenges
Ready to get stuck in? Download the SoloLearn App today for Android or iOS!
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