What is SQL? it’s a programming language designed to manage data in a relational database. SQL, which is an acronym for a structured query language, is the most common method used in accessing data in databases today.
SQL also has various functions that enable users to read and manipulate data. Although it’s commonly used by engineers in software development, SQL is also popular with data analysts and other professionals for the following:
- it’s easy to learn and understand
- data analysis in SQL is easy to audit and replicate
- helps in accessing large amounts of data and analysts don’t have to copy data into other applications
How to Learn SQL?
You already know that you learn a lot from SQL training courses. A wide range of those courses is available both online and offline. Organizations can get their staff to learn an SQL course from Acuity Training onsite or live online.
There are many options when it comes to the effective learning of SQL. you must, however, keep in mind that not all the platforms provide high-quality training.
Remember that mistakes and bad habits that are learned early on can have catastrophic consequences on your career in the future. So do some due diligence and research before committing to an institution.
How SQL Contributes to Accurate Data in Organizations
Inaccurate data has real-world implications in various sectors. In law enforcement, for instance, inaccurate data could mean booking the wrong person for a crime. In the healthcare industry, it could mean making a fatal medical diagnosis in a patient. For the retail sector, it could mean making a business decision that will negatively affect the organization.
Data accuracy is not only a component of data quality but it’s also the most important characteristic that makes data purposeful. Let’s now find out how SQL helps organizations in making data accurate.
1. Automating Workflows and Analyses
A lot of organizations are familiar with spreadsheet software. Considering excel’s pervasiveness and history, some employees in your organization may already be proficient in advanced excel commands and tools.
SQL is an accessible extension to excel. That’s because it can execute all the excel spreadsheet functions and more. SQL joins clauses, for instance, delivers the same outcome as VLOOKUP in excel. Excel uses familiarity with data in tabular format, which makes it easier for the causes to be learned and adopted.
Excel and SQL provide organizations with different strengths and benefits. As such, having both tools in a data tool kit will make your team more effective in handling and automating a wide range of data tasks that involve relational databases.
2. Effective Manipulation of Large Datasets
Traditional spreadsheet software such as excel works well with datasets of small to medium sizes. The challenge, however, comes in when dealing with large volumes of data. That’s because the excel program can become tediously slow and it can even crash.
Opening and processing big datasets in the program make it untenable for large-scale analysis. That’s when SQL comes in. With SQL training, your staff will be well-equipped to use it in processing datasets of virtually any size. Remember that SQL is designed to manipulate large datasets fast and robustly. This enables analysts to locate and extract data efficiently.
Due to SQL’s speed and rigor, it’s still the go-to query language for interfacing with modern data warehouses and platforms.
3. Finding Solutions To Difficult Questions
Organizations are supposed to constantly answer challenging business questions. This is important as it contributes to their growth. Together with the increasing data volumes in this digital era, there needs to be a query system in place. This would help to derive comprehensive insights from different data sources.
The best thing about SQL is that it helps to extract and manipulate large volumes of data. This is unlike the spreadsheet software where users have to separately open every sheet to retrieve the data. SQL can easily combine data from different relational database tables before efficiently running a query on the merged data.
Let’s assume that you have a food delivery business that runs a marketing campaign on food channels. This then ramped up weekly throughout October. The question would be, how much revenue did you get weekly throughout October?
The above question can join two tables of orders and meals with SQL join clauses. It then groups the data based on the week of transactions. Moreover, detailed SQL questions like this can be saved and shared with colleagues. It guarantees the replicability of comprehensive analyses.
4. Democratizing Data Science
A survey by PWC Global Data and Analytics shows that data-driven organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making. But despite the large volumes of data collected over the years, some organizations are still not ready to effectively learn from their data.
SQL is the best tool for democratizing data science in an organization. That’s because it’s an easy and intuitive language that anyone can learn and apply.
It doesn’t matter that only a handful of your staff learns the basic SQL queries for self-service analytics. Your organization can expect to see improvements in effectively finding solutions to business questions with data.
With the valuable data skills obtained from SQL training, organizations can achieve the positive business outcomes of running a data-driven business.
5. Large User Community
The SQL programming language is incredibly mature and is extensively used. It boasts a vibrant network of professionals who are ready to take up SQL jobs to provide advice and well-equipped best practices.
There are various opportunities to improve your employees’ skills and boost collaboration. Consultants, for instance, and SQL suppliers can provide extra assistance when needed. Your team will learn how to find the right answers using their knowledge of SQL.
Conclusion
Structured query language has grown to become the world’s most popular database language. Organizations can benefit from SQL since it’s specifically created for database management needs.
In the world of big data, businesses must be able to process large volumes of data. And tools like SQL and SQL-trained individuals are what is needed to ensure that dealing with complicated data queries is possible. The bottom line is that SQL skills are beneficial no matter what industry you’re in.
