What is SQL and what is it used for?

Access to databases

Databases are structured sets of information stored and accessed electronically. These make it easy for companies to retrieve, update and analyze internal data, often using SQL or similar languages.

Companies use databases because tables and files cannot scale. Although they may be suitable for small companies and startups that do not collect large amounts of data, they can only store a limited amount of data.

For example, an Excel file can only store 1 million rows of data, and even when users try to perform complex operations with it, it will significantly slow down system performance. In comparison, databases can load more than 10 million records in less than a minute. In addition, databases allow you to easily manage, analyze and combine data, which cannot be done with a spreadsheet or text file. There are many different databases used by organizations to store internal data, the most popular being relational databases. Relational databases store data points with predefined relationships between them and can be accessed using a language called SQL. Check out our course to get a thorough understanding of relational databases and how they work.

What is SQL?

SQL (Structured Query Language) is a standard language used for storing, retrieving and manipulating data in relational databases.

It allows end users to interact with the database and perform tasks such as creating, updating, and deleting databases. Almost every mid- to large-sized organization uses SQL, including Facebook, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Accenture.

In fact, SQL was recognized by Stackoverflock as the most used database environment in 2021 and the third most popular programming language.

What is SQL used for?

So, now that you know what SQL is, you might be wondering what it is used for. As we mentioned earlier, it is a programming language used to interact with relational databases. But let's explore this in a little more detail.

SQL has many uses and is used for data processing and business intelligence, development and data science in marketing, healthcare and finance. SQL allows you to query the database in a variety of ways using English-like instructions. Used on websites for internal storage and processing solutions (e.g. Facebook uses SQL).

Besides Facebook, you can expect SQL to be used in music apps like Spotify, banking apps like Revolut, and other social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. SQL is the most widely used database language, so it can be used in any company that needs to store relational data.