SQL stands for Structured Query Language.
It’s a query language¹ — a type of language that lets you interact² with a database.
You use queries to do so. Here’s an example:
The query above returns all the rows and columns from the users table.
Now, let’s go over why SQL is such an important skill to learn!
1. It’s valuable across many roles
Whether you’re a coder, or in product, analysis, marketing, operations, QA or even sales — SQL will make your life easier.
2. You’ll seem like a superhero
You’ll be more self-sufficient with data. Others will come to you for advice. It adds a lot to your resume.
3. It’s not going anywhere
It’s been around for over 40 years. And yet it’s the structure for the top 4 databases, and the 3rd most popular technical language in general.
Footnotes
[1] Many people also call SQL a programming language.
However, SQL can only interact with a database and doesn’t have the capability and many of the features needed to develop software, which is associated with programming languages.
[2] Aside from getting data from it, interacting with a database can include other manipulations like:
- inserting data,
- updating data, and
- creating tables.
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