SQL (structured query language) is a basic programming language that is used to send information, retrieve information, and organize information in a database. It’s critical for big businesses, and increasingly more for medium and small corporations. This is especially useful for corporations that deliver a product to end-users and most of all, business-to-consumer companies.
It’s often used to allow for programs to interact with a database since it’s compatible with almost any high level language. As a skill, SQL optimization in right behind big data in regards to its demand in the workplace. Below is a basic introduction to SQL and some of the advantages that it can have for your business.
Database management
SQL’s sole design is to manage databases, and that’s the biggest benefit it can have for your company. SQL can run complex queries that search for specific pieces of information based on listed criteria. For example, if you had a database of employee payments and you wanted to just see the amount paid to employees in the marketing division, SQL could run a query that would only pull information about those individuals.
Little coding required
SQL is rather easy to work with itself, even though setting it up can sometimes be confusing. SQL only has seven different commands, which is a lot simpler than most programming languages. Of course, these commands can be used in a variety of ways so it does get a little more complicated, but not much. Compared to other languages, SQL is one of the least code dependent.
Used by large companies
Microsoft may be one of the largest companies out there to employ SQL. Microsoft uses it in Open Database Connectivity, SQL Server, and ActiveX Data Objects. You’ll also find that a majority of software development companies out there will use SQL with their programs in order to manage databases efficiently.
Relational database managment
Relational databases are designed to have information that relates to one another, often through a primary key. In this type of structure, the database is organized into tables with a certain row having relations with other tables, such as an ID value. SQL makes it easy to relate tables through primary keys so that you can retrieve information from several tables at once and display it in an organized method that’s easy to read. For example, you might have a table of students as well as a table of classes. Using SQL, you can combine elements from both tables to figure out which student is taking which class as well as the teacher they will have, pulling that from the classes table.
Should you use SQL?
In case these advantages weren’t straightforward enough, you should definitely use SQL. SQL makes your life a whole lot easier and doesn’t take very much of your programmer’s time to setup. It is also easy to maintain, and when things get complex you can always use the 12 steps to SQL performance tuning to easily fix the complexities.
Database management is important, and when things get complex it’s easy to mess up data. SQL keeps things organized and simple, protecting your database from accidental manipulation and speeding up the process of data management. It’s quick, efficient, and will save your company a lot of money in the long run.