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spO0q 🐒
spO0q 🐒

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Don't underestimate SQL

You may read that cheat sheet to get started:

While SQL (Structured Query Language) is not the only programming language to master as a back-end developer, it's a critical one!

Pretty much everything we do allows users to fill a relational database with various entries. Of course, SQL is not the only approach (e.g., NoSQL), but it's a fundamental step in your journey.

MySQL?

MySQL is a product that implements SQL. In other words, it's a relational database management system.

It's still widely used in dev teams, so you should definitely learn it, whether you want to get a job as a back-end dev, a database administrator, a system admin, or a data analyst (or many other jobs).

The key points they don't tell you

By "they," I mean the Illuminati, of course ðŸĪĢðŸĪŠ.

More seriously, you will find everything about the technique on Internet, but the "why" is often skipped.

So, why SQL anyway?

5 reasons in short:

  • SQL is everywhere in the IT business
  • a well-crafted SQL query can spare significant time and resources (e.g., vs far-fetched PHP operations with big arrays), whereas a slow query can literally ruin your app
  • SQL is easy to learn and powerful to extract relevant data in a large dataset
  • mastering SQL will help you secure your queries, whereas ignorance will put your app and your users in danger
  • very good introduction to programming that will be still valuable over the course of your career

Bottom line: start with SQL

While it might seem opinionated, I would likely recommend starting your journey in programming with SQL.

You won't waste your time at all, and it may even make learning other languages easier.

Top comments (4)

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rickdelpo1 profile image
Rick Delpo • Edited

Hi, I definately agree that SQL is a mainstay. I did it for 20 years on the job. But after I retired I looked into NoSQL in a big way and in our Javascripted world of Today with many wanting to be in a Serverless environment, I finally ditched MySQL in favor of a JSON text database. (only for small use cases like dashboards)

I wrote a Dev article about this here...entitled To SQL or To NoSQL
dev.to/rickdelpo1/to-sql-or-to-nos...

also I write more about this topic at my website javasqlweb.org

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spo0q profile image
spO0q 🐒

hum, I Don't think "SQL vs. NoSQL" makes sense. These are different usages that can even be complementary in some projects.

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rickdelpo1 profile image
Rick Delpo • Edited

hey great point, my article, above, does point out all the usage stuff you mention and does favor SQL but I always wanted to try NoSQL anyway because I am an ad hoc kind of guy still interested in the coding business. PS, don't tell the Hadoop guys that we think SQL is superior. There is a big debate about this out in the Big Data world. On my job, generally 95% of use cases required SQL but there are a handful of use cases that are ideal for NoSQL which btw means 'not only SQL' instead of implication 'don't use SQL'. Also PostgreSQL db uses both in a big way. My use cases for NoSQL include mostly small dashboards connected to a javascript frontend. We only use a few metrics in this case and there are no relationships present.

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andrewrgarcia profile image
Andrew Garcia

Couldn't agree with you more.