There is a big buzz around the concept of data now, and billions of bytes of data are generated every minute. However, raw data doesn’t come in that handy on its own. There are many data management tools and applications. SQL, or Structured Query Language, is one of the programming languages used to communicate with databases to create, delete, and retrieve data from them. In this guide, we will go through the details of SQL. Learn the concept of SQL programming, coding, queries, best code writing practices, and how to use it effectively.
The usage of SQL
Nowadays, all types of businesses, from the smallest e-com stores to giant corporations, use data to run operations. These organizations use sound database management systems and practices to use their data. Due to this increased need, the demand for expert database administration professionals is also on the hype.
Data is a crucial part of any web or mobile application. You can take the social networking platform of Facebook, for example, which holds a massive volume of data, including the profiles of billions of users, their posts, connections, friends, etc.
A proper database system like SQL is up to hold all these data, enabling programmers and administrators to work with the data in hand effectively. Learn the concept of SQL programming, coding, queries, best code writing practices, and how to use it effectively
What is SQL?
Software and web applications are usually under a program in any language like PHP, Python, or Dot Net, whereas databases cannot understand these scripting languages.
Here comes the need for a dedicated database programming language, and SQL, historically up for this purpose for many decades. SQL has undergone many structural and syntactical changes over the last several years but remained the most acceptable and user-friendly database language.
Like any other programming language, SQL also has its markup. So, a programmer should learn SQL markup language too to handle the application databases. Besides being a markup language, another unique feature of database programming is the idea of creating tables. A good database is present in terms of tables.
Each table in a database has a set of columns and rows to represent the data. You can imagine it is similar to the library where we used to store the books in different rows. Learn the concept of SQL programming, coding, queries, best code writing practices, and how to use it effectively
Commands and database: SQL Programming Concept
Many commands are up in SQL to make the database work properly. Here are some of the significant SQL commands for top-line activities. An SQL notebook can be a valuable tool for organizing and executing SQL queries, making it easier to manage and analyze data.
- CREATE DATABASE
- CREATE TABLE
- SELECT (to find the exact data from a table)
- UPDATE (update/edit data)
- DELETE (deletion of tables)
The commands mentioned above are most commonly up in SQL for database manipulations. The more complicated the database in hand is, the more commands programmers need to use for doing different database-related tasks. As a result, a top SQL programming concept;
If your database is complex, using third-party DBA services to manage DB better is ideal. All these commands are up while writing the queries to operate data in various databases.
In other words, while you enter such commands into a database system, the system can interpret them and process them accordingly. As a result, a new record is up in the database, or a new database itself is present.
Here is an example of the creation of a new database and columns.
The first SQL query will help create a new database. On considering a social media application like Facebook, it may need the creation of databases for the entries like:
- Users – A database to store all information related to the user profiles.
- Interests – A database would contain various interests of the users, which can be present to track down the ideal user persona to custom design the marketing strategies.
- Geographic region – A database to hold information about the global locations from where the users access the app.
The query of CREATE TABLE is up to create a table inside the database made. You can specify the data inside each table and structure your database for best use.
The industries which use SQL database
Databases as essential for all industrial fields, whether using a website or online transactions to run the business. Therefore, SQL is also present as the most acceptable database technology field in all the areas where there is a need for a considerable volume of business data management.
Let’s further look into some of the top industries where SQL usage is most common. Learn the concept of SQL programming, coding, queries, best code writing practices, and how to use it effectively
Finance: SQL Programming Concept
Banking and finance applications, including online payment processing, must operate a huge amount of data accurately and securely. The databases in such applications store and handle data about various users and financial transactions.
Behind all such processes is a very complicated and gigantic database functioning. SQL can also meet the additional security requirements needed for banking applications.
Music and entertainment
Music apps like Pandora and Spotify etc., need to handle intensive databases. Among many other requirements, databases will help such apps store a lot of music libraries and files. This data needed to be operated accurately and quickly, for which SQL is an ideal choice.
Social media: SQL Programming Concept
As we have seen above, social media is one of the major platforms with a lot of data processing and storage needs. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat use SQL databases to store user profiles, posts, and comments.
There are separate databases for location information, and bars are created every minute.
The top variants of SQL are:
- MySQL – Firstly, an open-source database freely available for individuals and businesses for database management. As being open source, MySQL can be effectively integrated with any open-source programming platform.
- Microsoft SQL Server – Secondly, it is Microsoft’s bespoke database management system. It is a feature-rich database that can run on all Windows OS.
- PostgreSQL – This is an open-source database used mainly by technology startups. It also supports various OS like Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
Considering all these factors, you can see that the need for SQL is all around you to drive the databases effectively. From social media portals to mobile phone apps, some version of SQL is running for the data manipulation needs.
Even though the technology industry if fast changing over the last couple of decades, SQL has remained one of the most stubborn database programming languages through the times. In conclusion, It is considered the essential skill set in the tool belt of any developer across the platforms.
